John Entwistle, founding bassist for the groundbreaking British rock group The Who, died Thursday in Las Vegas, a day before the band was to begin a North American tour. He was 57.
Mr. Entwistle’s body was discovered about noon Thursday in his hotel room by his road assistant, said his manager, Steve Luongo. The cause of death was under investigation, but Luongo said it is believed that the bassist died of a heart attack.
The Who had rehearsed Wednesday night in Las Vegas, according to a report on mtv.com, and was due to launch a tour there Friday night. The group was scheduled to play at Tweeter Center in Tinley Park on Aug. 24.
“We lost a Jimi Hendrix of bass guitar,” Luongo said. “He was probably my best friend and my musical soulmate. I’m completely devastated.”
The Who was one of the key bands in the British Invasion of the 1960s, bringing an element of Mod style and a level of sonic and sometimes literal violence to their performances that eclipsed contemporaries such as The Beatles and Rolling Stones, and paved the way for more aggressive genres such as heavy metal and punk. Mr. Entwistle’s fluid, thundering tone on the bass was masterly, and it defined the group’s sound as much as Pete Townshend’s songwriting, Roger Daltrey’s stentorian vocals and the late Keith Moon’s anarchic drumming. He also was a fine songwriter, his quirkier (and often kinkier) visions in tunes such as “Boris the Spider,” “Fiddle About,” “My Wife” and “Trick of the Light” complementing Townshend’s more socially conscious pop anthems.
All four group members grew up around London; Mr. Entwistle was born Oct. 9, 1944, in working-class Shepherd’s Bush. He and a banjo-playing Townshend played in a Dixieland band as teenagers, with Mr. Entwistle on trumpet, an instrument he adopted from his father. The experience would inform his work with The Who, from the French horn trills on the ribald early single “Pictures of Lily” to his arranging and conducting the horn orchestrations on one of The Who’s most exalted works, the 1973 rock opera “Quadrophenia.”
But it was as a bassist that Mr. Entwistle made his largest impression, beginning with his bass solo on The Who’s defining single, “My Generation,” released in 1965. Though an accomplished soloist, he also anchored the band’s rhythm section because of Moon’s untamed drumming. His status as the ultimate team player was mirrored by his taciturn stage presence, a shadowy figure who barely flinched save for the fingers of his right hand prancing like a spider across the bass strings.
As a result, his contributions often went unnoticed, as Townshend once told an interviewer: “It’s still funny to this day when we do a song with John doing a blinding bass run, making Alvin Lee look like he plays in slow motion, and I’m just standing there plucking away and they wonder how I do it. John doesn’t demand attention. For years, nobody even noticed John was there.”
But the sound pouring from Mr. Entwistle’s bass was immense, and helped cement The Who’s stature as inventors of “power pop” and as precursors of the heavier rock sound embraced by later British groups such as Cream and Led Zeppelin.
He maintained his composure even as the other members of The Who would destroy their equipment to conclude many of their ’60s performances; most famously, Moon blew up his drum kit while appearing on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” television show, permanently damaging Townshend’s hearing while the bassist played on, stoic and unfazed. Little wonder he was nicknamed “The Ox.”
Despite the antics, The Who was one of the best concert bands in rock, as documented by the “Live at Leeds” album, generally hailed as the pinnacle of live performance by a ’60s rock band. Yet it was Townshend’s rock operas, “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia,” for which the band became best-known. The group’s greatest days were over by the time Moon died of a pill overdose in 1978, but it continued to tour for several more years before breaking up in 1982.
The surviving members have since reunited for several tours. Though the band has not released new material since “It’s Hard,” its last studio album in 1982, it has kept its name alive through countless compilations and by licensing its best-known songs to television commercials.
Mr. Entwistle released a half-dozen solo albums and continued to mount the occasional solo tour. The Who’s first studio album in 20 years was reportedly in the works as the band prepared to hit the road Friday–a plan that has been put on hold, perhaps permanently, because of its bassist’s untimely death.
