Big Star bassist Andy Hummel, a founding member of the cult rock band who performed on the group’s acclaimed first two albums, died yesterday in Weatherford, Texas, following a two-year battle with cancer. Hummel was 59. Hummel’s death comes just four months after he took part in a SXSW tribute to Big Star frontman Alex Chilton, who suffered a fatal heart attack on March 17th.
Hummel’s Big Star roots date back to the Memphis band Icewater, which featured Big Star guitarist Chris Bell (who later died in a 1978 car accident) and Stephens before Chilton joined the group. Hummel played on Big Star’s debut #1 Record and Radio City, both listed on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Hummel wrote “The India Song” and “Way Out West” and has co-writing credits on some of the band’s most beloved songs, including “Back of a Car,” “Life is White” and “Daisy Glaze.” While Big Star developed a cult following decades later thanks to the support of famous fans like Paul Westerberg and R.E.M., the band was underappreciated in its own time, and Hummel quit to finish school prior to recording the group’s epic Third/Sister Lovers.
Hummel went on to become a longtime employee at Lockheed Martin, though he still occasionally played music on the side. When Big Star reunited in the mid-1990s, Hummel elected not to take part; the Posies’ Ken Stringfellow took over bass in his place.
(Source: RolingStone.com)
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