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Old 02-18-2010, 05:24 PM   #10
jj
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: ontario, canada
Posts: 5,265
Default Re: HE IS FINE - it was a hoax

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment...-not-dead?bn=1

Gordon Lightfoot alive and well
By BEN RAYNERPop Music Critic
Thu., Feb. 18, 2010
Gordon Lightfoot, it seems, learned of his own passing much later than most Canadians.

Unbeknownst to the 71-year-old Canadian folk icon, he was declared dead – first by a Twitter poster in Ottawa, then by a plethora of news websites, then by just about every other media outlet in the country – during a visit to his dentist on Thursday afternoon. It was only when he innocently flipped on the radio while driving back to his office that he learned that he was no longer alive. According to some reports, in fact, he had died the night before.

“I was quite surprised to hear it myself,” a good-humoured Lightfoot quipped in a call to CP24 hastily made upon his return to the Early Morning Productions office, where the phones were predictably ringing off the hook. “I’m sitting in my office right now.”

The speed with which Lightfoot’s death and resurrection in the media took place was amazing. At 2:40 p.m. EST, for instance, the Vancouver Sun’s website posted a brief announcing Lightfoot’s death, quoting fellow singer Ronnie Hawkins as saying his old friend had passed away the previous evening. By 2:52, it was gone.

“I’m fine. I’m in great health. I’ve been doing just fine. The whole thing’s a hoax,” said Lightfoot during another call, this one to 680 News, joking that “all of a sudden, my music is in heavy rotation.”

“We’re gonna be getting calls here all afternoon, I’m sure … I really appreciate the concern. I don’t know what to make of it but I hope that we’ll find out. But I’m fine.”

Where the rumours came from is anyone’s guess at this point. Hawkins is certainly baffled.

Reached at his rural-Ontario home, Hawkstone Manor, he called the whole affair “some kind of a sick joke” and graciously accepted the offer from this reporter of Lightfoot’s home phone number, which he’d misplaced, to ring up his old pal and apologize.

Hawkins said he’d received a call from his management office in Minneapolis earlier in the day telling him Lightfoot’s grandson had phoned in to say that the man responsible for such indelible folk tunes as “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Early Morning Rain” had passed away the night before.

“I don’t know Gordon’s grandson. I didn’t even know if Gordon has a grandson,” he said, audibly flustered. “I called my wife in Florida and told her and I guess she faxed some of her friends and now, all of a sudden, it’s all over the world. It’s terrible. I can’t even get ahold of Gordon. Holy smoke, it’s unbelievable.

“It’s a sick joke. I’m glad it is a sick joke, but it’s bad.”

Lightfoot’s longtime manager, Bernie Fiedler, was clearly weary of the whole affair by the end of the afternoon. But at least he used it as an opportunity to promote the singer’s upcoming spring tour, which kicks off in St. John’s on March 29 and 30 and concludes at the John Labatt Centre in London on April 15.

“He’s alive and well,” affirmed Fiedler. “He’s looking forward to his touring.”
too bad the Lloyd Robertson rumour was a hoax...when he does pack it in (and move to FL or wherever) i hope he takes the entire CTV (Olympic) crew with him
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