Gone But Not Forgotten: Musicians We Lost in 2023

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Billboard remembers the artists who left us this year.

 

Jeff Beck photographed in October 1984.

 

 

 

It’s always a big loss when the world loses a talented artist, and unfortunately, 2023 kicked off with several notable deaths in music. It began with Gangsta Boo, the pioneering Southern female rapper formerly of hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia, who was found dead on New Year’s Day at age 43.

The next day, Alan Rankine of post-punk New Wave act The Associates, who also produced the Cocteau Twins and pursued his own solo music, died at age 64. Since then, we’ve also lost rock guitar legend Jeff Beck — who died at age 78 on Jan. 10 — and singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, who suffered cardiac arrest and died on Jan. 12 at age 54.

While their loved ones and fans around the globe mourn the loss of these artists, they will not be forgotten. Here, Billboard remembers the musicians who left us in 2023.

Barrett Strong
(Feb. 5, 1941 – Jan. 29, 2023)

Tom Verlaine
(Dec. 13, 1949 – Jan. 28, 2023)

David Crosby
(Aug. 14, 1941 – Jan. 19, 2023)

Van Conner (right)
(March 17, 1967 – Jan. 17, 2023)

C.J. Harris
(Jan. 28, 1991 – Jan. 15, 2023)

Lisa Marie Presley
(Feb. 1, 1968 – Jan. 12, 2023)

Robbie Bachman
(January 2023)

Jeff Beck
(June 24, 1944 – Jan. 10, 2023)

Gordy Harmon of The Whispers
(1943 – Jan. 5, 2023)

Alan Rankine
(May 17, 1958 – Jan. 2, 2023)

Gangsta Boo
(Aug. 7, 1979 –  Jan. 1, 2023)