Wilko Johnson, a star of Game of Thrones, has succumbed to cancer. At the age of 75, the legendary Dr. Feelgood rocker passed away at home. In this article we will see in detail about how did he die? and what was Wilko Johnson cause of death?.
How did Wilko Johnson die?
Wilko Johnson, a Games of Thrones actor and Dr. Feelgood rocker, has succumbed to cancer. At the time of his passing, the actor was 75. According to reports, after he decided against receiving chemotherapy, he was given a terminal diagnosis in 2013 and told he only had 10 months to live. The renowned musician-turned-actor became famous for his role as Illyn Payne in the television series.
Johnson died on Monday at home, according to a statement posted on his Twitter account. No more information was provided.
This is the announcement we never wanted to make, & we do so with a very heavy heart: Wilko Johnson has died. He passed away at home on Monday 21st November. Thank you for respecting the family’s privacy at this very sad time. RIP Wilko Johnson.
Wilko Johnson
This is the announcement we never wanted to make, & we do so with a very heavy heart: Wilko Johnson has died. He passed away at home on Monday 21st November. Thank you for respecting the family's privacy at this very sad time. RIP Wilko Johnson.
— Wilko Johnson (@wilkojohnson) November 23, 2022
(Image: Leif Laaksonen) pic.twitter.com/1cRqyi9b9X
Wilko Johnson cause of death
Wilko Johnson died after a long battle with cancer. no further information on cause of death has not been disclosed.
We must therefore wait until the family members have had the time and space to process this enormous loss.
Johnson cancer battle
In November 2012, Johnson was rushed to the hospital with an undisclosed illness, forcing him to postpone a performance. He received no chemotherapy after receiving a late-stage pancreatic cancer diagnosis in January 2013.
He spoke with John Wilson on the BBC Radio 4 arts programme Front Row on January 25, 2013. He talked about his cancer and said that his doctors had given him nine to ten months to live. Along with discussing his upcoming “farewell tour” of the UK in March, he also discussed how his diagnosis had made him feel “vividly alive.”
After the tour was completed, he made the announcement that he would spend his final days working on a farewell album with Roger Daltrey of the Who. Going Back Home, the album, was made available in March 2014. In October 2014, he subsequently said to entertainment journalist for BBC News Colin Paterson, “I felt that was going to be the last thing I ever did.”
Johnson did not, however, have the more typical pancreatic adenocarcinoma. He was eventually found to have a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour (PanNET), which is a less dangerous and easier-to-treat variant of the disease. Johnson underwent a drastic procedure to correct his condition, and the medical professionals believed that his prognosis would be favourable.
In accepting the “Icon Award” at the Q Awards on October 22, 2014, Johnson stated that he had undergone “surgery of his pancreas, spleen, part of his stomach, small and large intestines, and the removal and repair of blood arteries linked to the liver” and was “cancer-free.” “It was an 11-hour procedure,” Johnson added. This tumour was the size of a baby and weighed 3 kg. Well, they got everything. They got me well.
It’s so bizarre and strange that it’s a little difficult for me to process it in my mind. I’m currently spending my time progressively accepting the notion that I won’t die soon and will continue to exist. When asked what he would do next, he responded, “I don’t know really,” adding that he was still recovering from the operation.
Who was Wilko Johnson?
John Peter Wilkinson, better known by his stage name Wilko Johnson, was an English guitarist, singer, composer, and sometimes actor. He died on November 21, 2022. In the 1970s, he was a member of the pub rock/rhythm and blues group Dr. Feelgood. Johnson was renowned for his distinct fingerstyle guitar playing, which he achieved by forgoing the use of a pick. This allowed him to simultaneously play riffs or solos and rhythm guitar, which resulted in a very percussive guitar sound.
The English punk movement was influenced by Johnson and Dr. Feelgood. According to Paul Weller, Johnson is “Despite not being as well-known as some other guitarists, Wilko is right there. Many more will also say the same thing. In many locations, I hear Wilko. It is a legacy.”
Career
Johnson, an Essex native who was raised in Canvey Island, attended Westcliff High School for Boys and participated in a number of local bands before enrolling at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne to pursue a BA in English Language and Literature. His undergraduate studies covered both the old Icelandic sagas and Anglo-Saxon literature.
After receiving his degree, he took a land route to India before coming back to Essex to join the Pigboy Charlie Band. The group developed into Dr. Feelgood, a pioneer in the pub rock movement of the 1970s. Johnson worked as an English teacher for less than a year in 1972 after his return from Goa.
Johnson paid £90 (about $1,854 in 2024) for his first Fender Telecaster in 1965 from a store in Southend, Essex. In 1974, soon after Dr. Feelgood signed their first record deal, he purchased a vintage 1962 Fender Telecaster with a rosewood fingerboard. Johnson later finished it in black and added a red pickguard after it had an original sunburst-colored body and white pickguard.
Dr Feelgood guitarist
Johnson created his own persona by fusing his jerky stage movements, or “duck walk,” with a choppy guitar playing style, occasionally raising his guitar to his shoulder like a gun, and a daring sense of fashion. He didn’t use a pick; instead, he relied on fingerstyle to achieve his playing style. This allowed him to simultaneously play riffs or solos and rhythm guitar, which resulted in a very percussive guitar sound. It developed out of Johnson’s unsuccessful attempt to imitate Johnny Kidd and the Pirates guitarist Mick Green.
His Bo Diddley-inspired approach served as the primary inspiration for Dr. Feelgood’s first four albums, which were all released between 1975 and 1977 and are titled Down by the Jetty, Malpractice, Stupidity, and Sneakin’ Suspicion.
Although Johnson played on Dr. Feelgood’s first five single releases, including “Roxette” and “Back in the Night,” the only song to chart while he was a member of the band was “Sneakin’ Suspicion,” which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. Following differences on the songs to be featured on the Sneakin’ Suspicion album, he departed the group in April 1977. Johnson insists that he was expelled from the band, despite the other band members’ assertions to the contrary.
Along with bassist Steve Lewins, drummer Alan Platt, and pianist John Potter, he co-founded the band Solid Senders in 1977. They signed with Virgin in 1978, the same year that Solid Senders was released.
The Wilko Johnson Band performed at the “Front Row Festival,” a three-week gathering that took place at the Hope and Anchor in Islington in late November and early December 1977. Due to this, two songs by The Wilko Johnson Band—”Dr. Feelgood” and “Twenty Yards Behind”—were included on a successful double CD of festival recordings. The compilation album Front Row Festival by Hope & Anchor, released in March 1978, peaked at number 28 on the UK Albums Chart.
On Sunday, August 4, 2013, Johnson performed a gig at Wickham Festival in Hampshire and was joined on stage by the Blockheads for a song. In the spring of 2014, Johnson will go on another tour with Howe and Watt-Roy.
Along with Watt-Roy and Howe, Wilko supported the “Frantic Four” on several UK dates in March and April 2014. Wilko signed with Creation Management in September 2014 following a meeting with Alan McGee in Southend-on-Sea, who referred to Wilko as “one of his all time heroes and a national treasure.”
Acting career
After the producers saw Johnson in Oil City Confidential, they decided to give him his acting debut and cast him as the mute executioner Ser Ilyn Payne in both the first and second seasons of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones.
He mentioned that “”They claimed they needed someone truly evil who stalked the streets gazing people in the eye with a dagger before killing them,” This made it simple. I always stare people down with a dagger in my eye; it comes naturally to me.” He appeared in four episodes, including “The Kingsroad,” “Baelor,” “Fire and Blood,” and “Blackwater” (all from season one, 2011).
Johnson’s musical legacy
Johnson’s musical taste served as the foundation for Dr Feelgood’s early years. a fashion that the British punk movement has acknowledged as one of its primary influences. According to The Stranglers’ Jean-Jacques Burnel, “I frequently tell journalists that there is a bridge between the old days and the punk periods. We were able to transition from one item to another using that bridge, which belongs to only the Feelgoods.
The DNA connection is that. Oil City Confidential, a Dr. Feelgood documentary from 2009, looked at this influence. A young John Lydon, Paul Weller, and Suggs from Madness were inspired by the band’s brutish R&B and guitarist’s mesmerising thousand-yard stare in the mid-’70s, according to Mark Blake of Q magazine in his review of Johnson’s autobiography.
Looking Back at Me solidifies the guy born John Wilkinson’s status as one of the most distinctive figures in British rock. Wilko talks about his upbringing on Canvey Island and how he followed the Goa hippy trail in the 1960s before working with Dr. Feelgood to create punk. Dr. Feelgood were highlighted as “pub rockers, a generation of bands sandwiched between 60s hippies and mid-70s punks who will help pave the way towards the short, sharp shock of punk” in the BBC4 three-part documentary series Punk Britannia, which debuted in May 2012.
A vinyl EP by The Wave Pictures titled Canvey Island Baby was released in February 2017. It included five covers of songs by Johnson as well as the title song, which was written by the band’s singer and guitarist David Tattersall.
Family
Johnson called Southend home. When they were teenagers, he married Irene Knight, his childhood sweetheart, and together they had two boys, Matthew and Simon. After his wife passed away from cancer in 2004, Johnson became a widower. He had a passion for poetry, drawing, and astronomy. Simon Johnson, a guitarist in the Southend-based group Eight Rounds Rapid, is also Johnson’s son.
Tribute to Wilko Johnson
micky said,
Thank You my Guitar Hero REST IN PEACE
marcus h said,
Ah man. R.I.P Wilko. Bloody inspiration for unconventional guitarists everywhere. X
Raymond Terrific said,
There aren’t many people who do anything really genuinely original with a guitar, but Wilko Johnson was one of them. What an inspirational musician – would we have Graham Coxon without Wilko for instance? Sad loss #RIPWilko
Paul Found said,
RIP #WilkoJohnson. Truly inspiring guitarist with a unique style and a stage presence that was second to none
Naöthrowe32 said,
Thank you for your brilliant rock and roll. I will never forget it. Rest in peace Wilko
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