Legendary new wave singer Gary Numan, best known in the U.S. for his hit “Cars,” broke down on stage while performing last weekend after receiving news of the death of his brother earlier in the day.
Numan used a post on social media to express his grief, calling the past few days the “hardest of my life.” He said his brother, John, 60, died “suddenly” early Saturday morning in Leeds, England, where Numan had performed Friday.
Numan said he and his brother had spent Friday evening together, “catching up, swapping stories, telling me about his newly found love of reading.”
“We talked about authors, music, the loves of our lives, children, our Dad, steam trains, aeroplanes, accidents, friends, enemies, just as much as we could squeeze in in the time we had,” Numan wrote. “We were just enjoying being together again as we see each other so rarely these days.”
He said they spoke for hours before his brother left early Saturday morning.
“I hugged him at the door of our tour bus, I think it was about 12:20am, asked him how far he had to walk to get to his car,” Numan wrote. “It was not far apparently, we said goodbye and I watched him walk away. Sadly he never made it to his car, betrayed by his own heart.
“It will haunt me forever that we may have driven off not knowing that he was lying in a rainy street just yards away. Luckily a kind person saw him and called an ambulance, but it was too late.”
Numan said he is continuing to tour on the advice of his dad and his brother’s wife. NME reports Numan became “visibly emotional” during Saturday’s show while singing “‘Please Push No More.” His wife walked onto the stage to comfort him, NME reports.
Numan then told the audience he had received the “worst news ever” that morning.
“This is not a tribute to John, I can barely think straight enough to find the words for this let alone a fitting and deserving tribute to someone I loved more than the world, those words will come in time,” Numan wrote in his post. “This is to explain why I’m struggling.
“I have no capacity at the moment to make decisions of any kind. I’m drifting, broken, shell-shocked, just watching one foot fall in front of the other.”
The current tour celebrates Numan’s album “Telekon,” but the singer says it’s now a tribute to his brother.
“This is the worst moment of my life and I have no idea what to do, other than to continue doing the only thing I know how to do, the thing John was always so proud of,” Numan wrote. “He loved Telekon. He was only 15 when I made it. So this tour is no longer a celebration of an album, it’s a tribute to John, my brother, the best brother a man could ever have.”
Read the original article on cleveland.com.
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