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The legendary Texas musician Roky Erickson, who helped invent psychedelic rock in the 1960s with his band The 13th Floor Elevators, went out on Friday. The cause of death was not known immediately. Erickson was 71 years old.
Mikel Erickson, Roky's brother, confirmed this news in a public message on Facebook: "My brother Roky passed away peacefully today, please give us the time." Music and laughter at never."
"The world has lost a huge light and an incredible soul," Sumner Erickson, another brother, said on Friday. "It was not the easiest life, but it's free of all that now."
An official statement from Erickson's management confirmed that he died in Austin but did not provide details.
"Erickson had a visionary zeal rarely seen in 1965 when he co-founded the 13th floor elevators," the statement said. "The band's original songs, many of which were composed with lyricist Tommy Hall, associated with Erickson's super-charged vocals and guitar, sparked the psychedelic music revolution in the mid-1960s and led to a new era. role of what rock could be.Erickson has never hesitated from the On this path, and although he has taken on incredible challenges at different times of his life, his courage has always led him to new musical adventures, which he pursued uncompromisingly all his life. "
The statement also included a quote from Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top, who had written about the group's European tour. Gibbons met Erickson in the 1960s, while he was part of the Houston Moving Sidewalks group, his psychological music peers of the Elevators.
"Roky has meant a lot to many admirers and will continue to resonate with a legacy of remarkable style, talent, and poetic and artistic tales from beyond," wrote Gibbons. "As a long-time friend and follower of Roky's incredible talents, and as a guitarist and singer, I can only speak of the tremendous impact that he and his friends at the 13th Floor Elevators have put forward with their psychedelic sounds strangely magnetic.
"It is almost unfathomable to contemplate a world without Roky Erickson, he created his own musical galaxy and was very early an inspiration, even at the moment, Roky is a source of creative energy of the first order. It's a circumstance where he continues to provide the required reverb, something he predicted by singing, "I'm going to miss you, we know now that he's one with the universe."
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Born July 15, 1947, Roger Kynard Erickson grew up in Austin and attended Travis High School. It gained prominence in the middle and late 1960s with the lifts on the 13th floor before drug and schizophrenia struggles lead to stays in public hospitals. Erickson finally resurfaced and recorded himself records.
In 1990, an Erickson tribute album, "Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye", featured major issues including ZZ Top, R.E.M. and T Bone Burnett. The music industry executive Bill Bentley, who produced this album, said Friday by phone in Los Angeles: "It's a huge loss for rock 'n roll." Changed my way of listening to music more than anyone else I've heard of. "
Sumner Erickson was his brother's guardian from 2001 to 2007, a period covered by the 2005 documentary "Erickson", entitled "I'll miss you" (named after one of the best-known songs d & # 39; Erickson). "When I became a tutor, the goal was to take him to a place where he no longer needed it," Sumner Erickson said.
Founded by Roky Erickson, Tommy Hall and Stacy Sutherland in 1965, the 13th floor elevators have often been cited as the first psychedelic rock band. Their 1966 hits, "You're Miss Gonna Me" and "Reverberation (Doubt)," arrived before the 1967 "Summer of Love" in San Francisco, although the rise of the Elevators is essentially parallel to that of the Bay Area groups led by the Grateful Dead.
Andrea Ball, in a 2003 article by Andrea Ball in an American newspaper, summarizes what happened in the late 1960s after Erickson's arrest for marijuana: During his stay, doctors administered him mood stabilizing drugs and administered electroconvulsive therapy. Roky spent the next three decades drifting between reality and madness. During the good times, he married, had children and produced music. The bad times left him paralyzed by auditory hallucinations and paranoia. "
At the same time, the appreciation of Erickson's music has increased. He occasionally appeared on special occasions, including the 1986 Austin Music Awards, where he joined the local band True Believers on stage. Leader Alejandro Escovedo recalled this adventure in a public publication on Facebook on Friday:
"When Roky went on rehearsal, he had a guitar in one hand and a screwdriver in the other. We went through the songs he had chosen several times and each time we went through them, he changed his key. As he was leaving, he turned to us with his psychedelic smile and said, "If you're scared, give me a call. It was an honor to play with him; he took us to another level of improvisation. "
In 2001, Sumner Erickson, who played tuba with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, became Roky's legal guardian. Sitting in Pittsburgh to live with Sumner, he followed a therapy and drug treatments to treat his schizophrenia.
"Slowly, Roky came out of his emotional cocoon," Ball wrote in 2003. "Instead of retiring on television after dinner, he spoke to his brother sitting at the table. He dined out every Thursday with friends. He played miniature golf. He has also moved closer to his son Jegar and his daughter Cydne Shull.
In 2010, indie-rock band Erickson and Austin Okkervil River teamed up with "True Love Cast Out All Evil", Erickson's debut album for over 10 years. At the time, writer Patrick Caldwell observed in Statesman: "The producer Will Sheff distilled 60 songs written throughout Erickson's life, to make 12 sobering pieces and which are finally festive. Okkervil River is an excellent support group, always emphasizing without ever eclipsing the wounded and tired voice of Erickson while Austin's music legend solemnly pleads on "Please Judge" exorcises the demons on the title and reminds us that even in the darkest days is everywhere. "
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In 2015, Austin's psychedelic music festival, Levitation, which owes its name to a song from the 13th Floor Elevators, won the rare feat of a reunion concert with Elevators, a brilliant moment for Erickson in his hometown.
Last month, Erickson performed the 1967 album "Easter Everywhere", one of the Elevator classics, in its entirety. Bentley, present for the performance, said it was spectacular, but he noticed that Erickson was having trouble breathing at certain times of the show.
Sumner Erickson, recalling the day of 2007 when Roky had been deemed unnecessary, said that he remembered this opportunity, described as "Roky's emancipation," but had stated that his brother did not consider him as a matter of itself. "Roky would agree that if anyone was emancipated, it was us two," he said. "He made it a blessing."
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