Good-bye Angel Eyes: Jeff Healy — an Inspiration to Artists Everywhere
March 4, 2008
March 2nd, 2008 was a sad day for music lovers of all genres. Jeff Healy, one of Canada’s most gifted, most versatile, and most loved musicians, lost his lifelong battle with cancer Sunday evening in a Toronto hospital. He was 41 years young.
Healy suffered from retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer that claimed his eyesight at the age of one. Still, undaunted by the ravages of the disease, he pursued his passion for music, and rose to become an accomplished, internationally renowned singer and songwriter, sharing his enormous talent as a classic rock, blues, and later on, jazz guitarist.
Healy’s publicist, Richard Flohil, in a statement to a CTV newscaster, said, “Visually, Jeff was an intriguing player to watch, because he played guitar — by any conventional standard — all wrong, with it flat across his lap. But he was a remarkable, a virtuoso player.”
No doubt Jeff Healy will be remembered for his diverse musical talent and for his awesome guitar playing, but I say Jeff Healy should also be remembered as inspiration to us all. Despite his crippling and often painful disease, this artist allowed his passion for music to rule his world.
Although blind, Healy began teaching himself to play guitar when he was just three years old. He was performing on stage by the age of six, and a few short years later, was considered a teenage prodigy, having put together his first band, Blue Direction.
As a rocker, The Jeff Healy Band produced such popular hits as the romantic “Angel Eyes,” the soulful “How Long Can a Man Be Strong,” and a stirring cover of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” He recorded and played side by side with the likes of George Harrison, Mark Knopfler, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. As a blues guitarist, Healy paired up with such musical geniuses as B.B. King and Jimmy Rogers.
Not feeling limited by his success as a rock star, Healy explored the musical realm of jazz, his true love, and released several CDs later in his career, earning him acclaim as an accomplished classic American jazz guitarist.
In his close circle, Healy was described as having a wicked sense of humor, as never feeling sorry for himself because of his illness, and as a generous, down-to-earth, warm-hearted soul.
Now that’s a true artist, through and through.
Healy’s first rock-blues CD in eight years, Mess of Blues, is to be released in the next few weeks in Europe, and later in April in Canada and the US. Can’t wait to hear it, although it will be a bittersweet experience, knowing that these are the last notes that will ever be played by one of the musical greats of our time.
Sincerest and heartfelt condolences go out to Jeff Healy’s family and friends. We’ll miss him too — his music, his courage, and his angel eyes.
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