Saw this earlier today on my lunch break. I've been trying not to cry since. Had a ticket to see her when she came to the US last year, then they had to cancel the entire North American leg of the tour. I figured no big deal, I'd just get the refund and see them later.
The Cranberries were a bucket list band of mine. Never saw them live, and now I never will.
My NYTimes morning bulletin has three names in the obituary section. Dolores O'Riordan was the first. Dan Gurney, one of the measurably greatest race-car drivers. And Edwin Hawkins, church choir director, whose singers made OH HAPPY DAY a hit long ago.
I have a connection there. I was in San Francisco back then, working scruffy jobs, playing scruffy guitars. I bought a little 3/4 size electric guitar and amp for a few bucks, found it a bad fit for my hands, and sold it cheap... to a gal across the Bay in Oakland. That guitar played on the two-track hit recording of OH HAPPY DAY, she told me later.
And that's the sad misery of it all. I hate to think that we've possibly lost another talented human being to their own hand, intentional or unintentional. I remember the first time I listened to 'Everyone Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We'. Her voice was remarkable. Such a shame.