Rest in peace STEVE MACKAY who passed away today after a difficult spell in the hospital with sepsis and other ailments. He was saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist for The Stooges (Funhouse album,) Iggy and The Stooges (all reunion albums and tours from 2009 - 2013,) saxophonist for a variety of worthy alternative bands in and around his native S.F. Bay Area, and overall nice guy, particularly for such an aggressive genre, says everyone who ever met him or worked with him.
He also was the most frequent commenter on my own blog herein, I suspect because of amusement that someone like me felt she still had so much new to write about the Stooges some forty years on. He also was the only one in the organization to actually write the words "...the last Stooges show..." implying a double meaning on one of my photographs of the band headlining the C2SV Festival, Sept. 28, 2013 in San Jose CA.
Please enjoy my gallery of Steve photos from, from the top down, The Tribute to Ron Asheton, West Hollywood CA, 2010; Tribute to Ron Asheton, Ann Arbor MI (2x); Ron Asheton Tribute, Calif. flipping off Circus Boy singer for destroying instruments onstage. These were other bands' instruments, not the singer's own, his favorite photo of mine, plus keyboards same gig; headlining the Ink & Iron Festival, Long Beach CA 2013 (2x, with blue lit background); and the last one, my photo of Steve Mackay in Iggy and The Stooges at C2SV Festival, San Jose CA, Sept. 28, 2013 his final appearance with them.
From the official Iggy and The Stooges source, a message from Iggy Pop on Steve Mackay's passing:
"Steve was a classic '60s American guy, full of generosity and love for anyone he met. Every time he put his sax to his lips and honked, he lightened my road and brightened the whole world. He was a credit to his group and his generation. To know him was to love him." -
Iggy.
Steve Mackay was a brilliant musician who got his long deserved rewards,when he toured with the Stooges when they finally achieved mass acclaim.
ReplyDeleteHis epic solos on the second side of "Fun House" is the stuff of legends.
As a direct result,I got into John Coltrane.
RIP,you were a class act.
Oh man, want to go cry. Damn, love you Steve. I got to see him twice with the Stooges, and last summer ('14), I saw him fronting the Horns of Dilemma backing up the Violent Femmes. Nobody blew like Steve, and he always lifted me up. Peace.
ReplyDeleteWhat a legacy. I am so glad that Steve and all his fellow Stooges finally got the recognition they so richly deserved. Steve was a brilliant musician and a really nice, gracious guy. I only knew him via Facebook, but my interactions with him were always really positive. He was a class act. RIP.
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