Sharon Jones suffered a stroke while watching the election results, Dap-Kings say
Leonard Cohen may have exited this world in a peaceful, pre-election haze—he reportedly died in his sleep the night before—the same can’t be said for soul singer Sharon Jones. In fact, as the Dap-Kings’ Gabriel Roth tells The LA Times, Jones suffered the first of the two strokes that would hasten her death while sitting at home watching the election results at November 8.
“She told the people that were [at the hospital] that Trump gave her the stroke,” Roth says. “She was blaming Trump for the whole thing.” Roth is quick to add that this was nothing more than a bit of light-hearted banter, though, and that Jones remained in good spirits surrounded by family, friends, and fellow musicians until suffering another stroke Wednesday. That stroke left her unable to speak, but she still sang. As Roth puts it:
She was just moaning at first, and then she was moaning in tune and then she started following chord changes and pretty soon she was humming “His Eye On The Sparrow” with [Dap-Kings member Binky Griptite]. We all just kept playing and singing with her, and little by little over the next couple of days she actually started moving her mouth and started singing lyrics. She just wanted to sing these gospel songs …
She didn’t seem anxious or scared or anything. She just wanted to sing, you know, and every time there was a lull in the room she would start moaning some kind of gospel song or something and we’d very quietly come in behind her and play guitar …
Even in that state—if you asked her if she was in pain, she couldn’t respond. She couldn’t say one word, or say somebody’s name or anything. But she could find harmony notes with Saun and Starr, and sing three-part harmony and improvise these gospel moans. It was really remarkable, and it was beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Sharon Jones died last Friday at the age of 60, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.