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Wilko Johnson, the Dr. Feelgood guitarist and “Recreation of Thrones” actor, has died on the age of 75.
The British musician handed away at residence on Monday, in response to a assertion posted on his social media accounts. Johnson had been recognized with terminal pancreatic most cancers in 2013 and opted to not obtain chemotherapy. On the time of his analysis, he was advised he would have—at most—10 months to dwell.
Two years earlier, Johnson had made his appearing debut within the first season of “Gameof Thrones,”taking part in mute executioner Ser Ilyn Payne, a task which he reprised in Season Two.
However Johnson had first discovered fame within the Seventies together with his pub-rock band Dr. Feelgood. He blew audiences away together with his intensely energetic performances and unorthodox taking part in model, through which he used fingerpicking to play riffs or solos and chords on the identical time.
He went on to play alongside Ian Drury earlier than embarking on a solo profession spanning 4 a long time. In 2014, he collaborated on an album with The Who’s Roger Daltrey, Going Again Residence. He additionally revealed he was cancer-free later that 12 months after having an excessive 11-hour surgical procedure to take away a big tumor, which concerned eradicating components of his intestines and abdomen.
“Now, I’m spending my time step by step coming to phrases with the concept that my dying shouldn't be imminent, that I'm going to dwell on,” he stated on the 2014 Q Awards.
He continued taking part in dwell exhibits up till final month. Johnson’s final present got here on Oct. 18 on the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London.
Information of his dying was shared together with his followers on Wednesday. “That is the announcement we by no means needed to make, and we accomplish that, on behalf of Wilko’s household and the band, with a really heavy coronary heart,” the assertion learn.
“Wilko Johnson has died. He handed away at residence on Monday night, 21 November 2022. Thanks for respecting Wilko’s household’s privateness at this very unhappy time, and thanks all for having been such an amazing help all through Wilko’s unimaginable life.”
Following the announcement, tributes to Johnson have flooded out from those that knew and admired him.
“I’m unhappy to listen to right this moment of the passing of Wilko Johnson,” Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Web page tweeted, including that the ambiance at one among his 2013 exhibits attended by Web page had been “electrical.”
“Greater than something Wilko needed to be a poet,” Roger Daltrey stated in an announcement. “I used to be fortunate to have identified him and have him as a buddy. His music lives on however there’s no escaping the ultimate curtain this time.”
Billy Bragg tweeted that Johnson was a “precursor of punk,” writing: “His guitar taking part in was offended and angular, however his presence—twitchy, confrontational, uncontrolled—was one thing we’d by no means beheld earlier than in U.Ok. pop.”