Slash, Ewan MacGregor and more stars of music and entertainment have paid their respects to Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord, who died yesterday (16 July, 2012).
Lord died from a fatal pulmonary embolism - a blockage of the main artery of the lung caused by a moving blood clot - following a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was with his family in his last moments.
The ex-Guns N Roses guitarist took to Twitter when he heard the news, writing: “Sad day in Rock & Roll; Jon Lord has passed on. One of the biggest, baddest, heaviest sounds in Heavy Metal. One if a kind. RIP.”
Other celebrities also spoke out about the founder of the legendary heavy metal band, using their Twitter accounts to do so.
Rage Against The Machine frontman Tom Morello tweeted: “RIP the great Jon Lord, Deep Purple's cornerstone/keyboardist. So many great great songs and that incredible SOUND of his! Thankyou.”
And even actor Ewan McGregor contributed, writing: “Deep Purple's Jon Lord dies at 71. Jon played with my great friend Tony Ashton. They'll be jamming upstairs now!”
Geezer Butler, the bassist of band Black Sabbath, went further and wrote a blog post in tribute to Lord on his personal website. Butler called him “one of the great musicians of my generation” and said how sad he was to hear of Lord’s death.
He added: “Tony Iommi recently worked with Jon, and said what a lovely bloke he was. I met him a few times, but never got to work with him. Blessings.”
