Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.

A year ago, I began what will unfortunately be a regular series of these programs from now on.

It's an annual look back on the musicians we lost in the previous years.

Rockstar deaths have really been on our mind since late 2015 when Scott Weiland of the

Stone Temple Pilots died, followed a few weeks later by Lemmy of Motorhead.

Then the floodgates opened in 2016.

Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Glenn Fry of the Eagles, both Keith Emerson and Greg Lig from Emerson, Lincoln Palmer, and George Michael. That's just to name a few.

Since then, it seems that we hear about a rock star death every couple of weeks. Tom Petty, Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Greg Allman, Walter Becker of Steely Dan, Chuck Mosley of Faith No More, Andy Fletcher

of Depeche Mode, Mark E. Smith of the Fall, Charlie Watts at the Rolling Stones. It really

has been a lot to take in. Some of these deaths have been of natural causes, disease, old

age. Others have involved drugs, alcohol, years of hard living, misadventure,

and suicide. Here is the hard truth. Rock has been around for about 70 years. Many of the people

who have provided us with our favorite music and some of the greatest songs of all time

are sadly reaching the end of their lives.

No one's getting any younger. And over the next decade, we're going to lose some of the

personalities who have always been there for us over the last 30, 40, 50, or even 60-plus years.

With that grim reality in mind,

I think we need to continue with an annual retrospective

featuring those who we lost in the last 12 months.

They may be gone,

but we need to recognize and celebrate their contributions

...