Parliament-Funkadelic Keyboardist Bernie Worrell Dies at 72
Bernie Worrell, best known for being the keyboardist of Parliament-Funkadelic, died on Friday at the age of 72.
His wife, Judie Worrell, made the announcement of his death on Facebook. She wrote:
“AT 11:54am, June 24, 2016, Bernie transitioned Home to The Great Spirit. Rest in peace, my love -- you definitely made the world a better place. Till we meet again, vaya con Dios.”
At the beginning of 2016, Worrell’s wife shared that he was living with stage-four lung cancer and had been diagnosed with a “mild form” of prostate cancer.
Worrell was born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1944. Worrell met the leader of the Parliaments, George Clinton, in the early 1970s. Worrell would become one of the 15 members of Parliament-Funkdelic to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Following the breakup of the funk-soul collective, Worrell joined the Talking Heads as a touring keyboardist.
On top of his contributions to Parliament-Funkadelic and the Talking Heads, Worrell released five solo records.
22m
8m
24m
24m
1m
3644s
20m
39s
1m
21m
5m
2m
2m
1m
3m
1m
3m
3m
1m
3m
3m
1m
3m
4m
1m
2m
9m
2m
3m
2m
2m
6m
36s
1m
2m
2m
1h 25m
49m
1m