I would think almost everyone will remember where they were and what they were doing when they found out Michael Jackson died this week. Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard these famous people passed away?

James Brown

Princess Diana

Kurt Cobain

John Lennon

Elvis Presley

The only one that sticks out in my mind is Lennon. I was 11 years old and i was standing in my bedroom when I heard the news. I cried like a baby. He is the only celebrity whose anniversary of their death still makes me cry.

James Brown: i was just coming downstairs christmas morning to my mom who was on the phone...and she gave me a look, i asked her what was wrong, and she blurted out "James Brown's dead."
Couldn't believe it...

Princess Diana: I was in my room getting ready for bed, and my dad came in and said "The Princess is dead, Sam.."
i still don't like thinking about how I felt when that happened.

The others I was too young to remember...

james brown: i was at home, on the computer and i had the television on as background noise. then the news came on and the reporter came on and announced that he had passed away. i gasped and was just like "oh my god..." that was one of the worst christmases ever for me.

princess di: i remember being at a convenience store down the street from my dad's house and being up at the counter to pay for my stuff and looking over at the copies of that day's des moines register nearby the door and seeing the front page.

kurt cobain: don't remember.

john lennon: i was only a day old when that happened.

elvis: wasn't around yet.

James Brown - I turned on NY1 News on Christmas morning and that was the lead story. I thought I was still dreaming.

Princess Diana - I was at home getting ready to go out to a club and was recording a rerun of Saturday Night Live so I could see the Spice Girls appearance that I had missed the first time it aired. The show got preempted to announce the news and my VCR taped 90 minutes of coverage. I still haven't seen that Spice Girls performance.

Kurt Cobain - I was at work and the entire art department was listening to the local rock station in the office that afternoon (as we did every day) and the news broke slowly that first a body was found in Kurt's home and then finally that it was him. None of us could believe it.

John Lennon - I didn't find out until the next morning from friends on our way to school. I wasn't into The Beatles (or music in general) yet at the time, but remember what a big deal it was.

Elvis Presley - I was at my aunt's house in Toronto sitting in her kitchen when his death was announced on the radio. My aunt and mom were quite surprised which I think is why I remember it. I was too young to be into Elvis or care at that age.

sextonseven said:

I've got an alibi! You can't pin nothing on me Guvnor!

James Brown - Can't remember

Princess Diana - Working a nightshift, so I got all the news as it came in on the radio and avoided the next day's easy-listening-back-to-back-tribute-marathon!

Kurt Cobain - Can't remember

John Lennon - Can't remember

Elvis Presley - Can remember it happening but was too young to comprehend it.

James Brown I found out about this when checking the org

Princess Diana She died on our first day back to school after summer break. My teacher told the class about it, and we watched the funeral coverage during religion class a few days later

Kurt Cobain Sitting on the floor at my old best friends house...At the time I didn't know who he was but she had just gotten cable so we'd watch just about anything on MTV then.

John Lennon N/A

Elvis Presley N/A

mcmeekle said:

My cell phone would not stop ringing christmas morning.
I didnt answer it because i was too tired to.after ringing 15 times i said fine.
Before i returned any calls i read a text from my mom. "James Brown is gone Steph"
So now i was wide awake...played "Gonna have a funky good time" while making breakfast.



I found out about Princess Di from the news. So sad.



If I remember correctly..I overheard two teachers talking about Kurt Cobain in school.

sextonseven said:

JB Don't remember. I was probably home because it was Christmas.

Was living in Minneapolis when Diana died. I woke up and heard the news and was just stunned. Didn't turn the TV off for the next couple of days. My lezzie roommate slept on the couch and kept the TV on for the funeral.

Kurt - not sure, and didn't care. I more remember hearing about River Phoenix on Halloween. I was really sad over that.

I was too young to care about Elvis, and John Lennon wasn't that big of a figure to me in 1980.

Princess Di , just going to bed

Elvis , getting dressed for school

Those are two i remember well

I don't remember what I was doing for any of them. (I think Diana's death may have happened on Labor Day weekend, but I'm not sure.)

I don't get bent out of shape over celebrity news of any kind. They're just people. People I don't know, for that matter. And people die every day.

James Brown

I was here in Germany...thinking about how to break the news to musician friends who idolized him so...

Princess Diana

sleeping on the couch in my Florida room in Miami Beach, I think I was waiting for our 3 black cats to come in through their kitty dor, I heard breaking news from the living room tv from ABC news that woke me up.


Kurt Cobain

prepping for a photo shoot for an Italian magazine as an assistant fashion editor, dealing with yet another fucking model who had literally fallen prey to the heroin chic craze, doing everything I could to keep her from ripping her couture samples off her body while she went into itching fits, trying to keep her from itching the scabs off her body and bleeding all over everything

John Lennon

I didn't process it because I knew very litle about him as a child. I don't remember.


Elvis Presley

Riding with Daddy in Mom's new Cadillac to sneak & get Dairy Queen before we had to pick up her bucket of chitlins'from Pick&Pay. It was the 70's and I remember the Elvis doll in the white jumpsuit was very popular for us little kids, even for us black kids. We knew him, he fell into a similar catgory as Cher and Dolly Parton; lovely shiny smiley people who showed up on our tv sets regularly wearing studded, beaded, glittery things . I think the only song I knew from him was "Hunk of Burning Love", though..in my childhood naivete I just assumed he was sing a song about barbecued ham. Lawd H'ammercy on me, but when he died for some reason I only associated the man with ham

Elvis died the year before I was born and i'm too young to remember John Lennon. I remember being at school when I heard about Kurt Cobain, but to be honest I didn't really know too much about who he was. A lot of people seemed shocked about it though.
I was still living with my parents when I heard about Diana. My sister telephoned me and I was in bed (with a man and a hangover! ) and I switched the news on - couldn't believe it!
James Brown - I think I was at my parents-in-law's house for christmas. We were all pretty gutted.

sextonseven said:

Can't remember

Can't remember

Can't remember

Slightly remember...I think I heard it on the radio late in the evening while in my bedroom..

Slightly remember...I think I was in the kitchen as a kid and heard it on tv...

James Brown- I actually don't remember. Wait, I think I was in the car on the way home from my mom's house.

Princess Diana -I think I just woke up and it was on the tv.

Kurt Cobain-Just walked out of school (in the 10th grade) and someone told me a body was found that authorities thought might be Kurt. I remember walking home from school thinking "It's not him. Please let it be someone else." I really honestly thought that by the time I got home they'd figure out it was a mistake. By the time I got home, Kurt Loder was announcing it on Mtv.

John Lennon -I was too young.

Elvis Presley -I was a fetus.

Genesia said:

I don't get bent out of shape either. But for some reason I do remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard these people had died. Maybe it's because for a lot of them, the media coverage on it was inescapable, particularly Princess Diana. When I arrived at a club later on that Saturday night, everyone there was talking about it.

I'll never forget the day JB died...it kinda bummed me out.

The same day I found out I had a year old granddaughter nobody had bothered to mention.

It was a helluva day.

James Brown - I think I caught TV coverage just as I was waking up Christmas morning, because I recall breaking the bad news to my mother just a few minutes later over breakfast.

Princess Diana - I don't recall

Kurt Cobain - I was watching MTV in my bedroom when the story broke.

John Lennon - I was really young. John wasn't on my radar yet, so I was oblivious to this whole story.

Elvis Presley - Same as John Lennon.

I wasn't alive when Elvis died, and was too young to remember John Lennon.


When Princess Di died, I had just moved to Chicago, and was getting ready to go out with my roommate. What I remember most about that was the fact that Mother Theresa died the same week but coverage of her death was overshadowed by Princess Di's death.


Kurt Cobain - I was in college, in the drawing studio working on my drawings, when this girl Rachel came in and told us.


James Brown - I was visiting my parents, and woke up to find a note saying they had taken my grandmother to the emergency room. I logged onto Housequake and found out about JB. My parents spent the entire day at the hospital with my grandmother (who ended up being okay, but didn't even remember being sick 1 week later). My other grandma & grandpa, brother, sis-in-law + their kids were coming over for xmas dinner and all got there before my parents got home. So I was trying to fix dinner for them, my grandpa was sitting at the table asking why dinner wasn't ready yet. No one was helping me & I didn't know my way around my mom's kitchen that well and I snapped at him a little. That was the last time I saw my grandpa; he died that following February.


.
[Edited 6/27/09 21:21pm]

Diana and Brown I was home...the others not born yet.

peacenlovealways said:

you weren't born when Kurt Cobain died!
I feel old now

James Brown: I don't remember. I think i was in class or something of the sort. s

Princess Diana: with my mother, watching her cry.

Kurt Cobain: i was very small when this happened so i don't know.

John Lennon: i was not alive

Elvis Presley: same as john lennon

for michael jackson: i was at a asian market, the lady at the counter was watching at the television. her eyes glued to the cnn, they glazed with a hint of sadness. i at first was cold, then reality hit. i felt sad, then i went on to my business.

baroque said:

This was written like it was the beginnings of a novel or short story

Don't remember that moment for hearing of any of their deaths... I'm pretty sure I was sitting @ the computer for JB though... I think I'll remember MJ...

thekidsgirl said:

it did happen like that, i just added..some artistic freedom lol..

aaaaaw nice thread

I was on the org when I found out about James Brown

masturbating

masturbating

masturbating

Taking a spelling contest

watching t.v.

Imago said:

gosh it's weird with you practically in my time zone for a change - unnerving even!