Whose would they be? Here's mine:

1. SRV. No debate on who is first on my list. No guitar player's music speaks to me the way his does. He was effortless and amazing. The tragedy of his loss is magnified by the fact that he had just cleaned up, and his trajectory was headed straight up (imo, based on In Step.)

2. Jimi Hendrix. maybe speaks for itself, but if not, just so he and SRV could meet on this mortal plane and we could witness it!

3. John Bonham. We missed so much Led Zeppelin music because of his passing. Crossing my fingers here that he and Page would have stayed alive and straightened out. If so, just imagine...

4. Buddy Holly. He was just 22 when he died. This Texan deserves his chance!

5. John Belushi. We never got to see his best work, i think. Hopefully in this scenario, he hangs on long enough for Dan Akroyd to finish Ghostbusters, and that is the motivation/trigger for him (or a team of friends) to get straight and hit a stride.

(edit: typo in "Bonham" yikes! )

Hendrix
Bruce Lee
Heath Ledger
Ronnie Van Zant
Duane Allman

Phil Hartman
Phil Lynott
Chris Cornell
Bill Hicks
Sam Kinison

Philip Seymour Hoffman has to be up there

Chris Cornell
Ronnie Van Zandt

River Phoenix

Almost needs to be two lists, actors and musicians. So difficult to narrow down, with so many greats lost way too soon…

Dio
Chris Farley
Hendrix
SRV

Phil Hartman
Chris Farley
River Phoenix
Selena
Bruce Lee

Bradley Nowell

1. Steve Clark
2. Hank Williams
3. Chadwick Boseman
4. Heath Ledger
5. Philip Seymour Hoffman

Robin Williams. Way too soon.

Anton Yelchin. He had potential to be a star

wcb said:

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Robin Williams. Way too soon.

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I loved him and hearing of his death really bothered me but he died at 63. Not sure that qualifies for way too soon.

MLK Jr
RFK Jr.
JFK
Gus Grissom
Kobe Bryant

Some good ones mentioned.

I would add Randy Rhoads.

Cliff Burton

I'll add Prince to my list as well.

hph6203 said:

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MLK Jr
RFK Jr.
JFK
Gus Grissom
Kobe Bryant

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Did I miss some news in the last few days or did you mean Sr?

superunknown said:

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Bill Hicks

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I saw him about 20 times in Houston. He was a big influence on my life. He had the ability to make you laugh during his show and then you'd think about life after his show. I often wonder what a field day he'd have on stage during the last few years.

As an aside, I moved to Houston in '83 to a tiny Montrose dump of an apartment. A couple days later I was next door and there was a guy passed out drunk in a chair - turns out it was Hicks. They told me he was destined to be the greatest comic in the world and they were right. Hicks was brilliant.

The Green Dragon said:

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Bradley Nowell

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Yep, RIP. My 2 yr old daughter loves Badfish, along with some of their other songs.

Love this picture for obvious reasons, beautiful photo of father with his son, reppin A&M...but it's also heartbreaking.