For any fans of Detroit's
Big Chief, you might want to know about the status of BC guitarist Philip Durr. He and I have mutual friends, so I've been following this on social media. This is from a post from one of his friends - I've eliminated the more personal text to just focus on what's happened.
"as most of you know by now, philip had a severe heart attack and cardiac arrest last saturday while visiting his aunt in munich. paramedics arrived fast, within ten minutes, but at the same time ten minutes too late. according to the doctors he was dead within seconds of the heart attack. he did not realize it happened, he did not feel pain, he did not suffer.
heart and breathing were revived by the paramedics, and philip was put in an artificial coma in the hospital so the doctors could assess the situation. here's the rub: there is grave danger of brain damage after only a minute of the brain being without oxygen. after twelve minutes it is an unavoidable fact. all attempts to restart brain activity was futile. so yesterday, after a final consultation with all the specialists, the doctors confirmed what they had suspected and what they already had told the family. there is no way to bring philip back."
To sum up: the body of Phil Durr lives on, though probably not for much longer, and the person that was Phil Durr is already gone.
Durr had spent the past several years playing with Toledo blues rock band Five Horse Johnson, Detroit shoegaze/stoner rock hybrid Luder and with his own space rock studio project Giant Brain. Several years ago, I spent a very pleasant late afternoon during SXSW chatting with him. He told me some hilarious stories about touring with Big Chief (including a rant about how, after Big Chief shows in Germany, the pretty girls would flock to the lead singer, while he was stuck surrounded by the guitar nerds), proselytized for Apple ("If I wasn't in the music business, I'd work at an Apple store as a saleman!") and was generally a smart and funny guy. I never really got to know him that well beyond that one afternoon, but we kept in touch on Facebook and had our mutual pal Scott Hamilton (owner of Small Stone Records, the label for FHJ, Luder and Giant Brain and Durr's Luder bandmate) in common.
It's a damn shame what's happened to him.
Edit 1/11/2019: Durr died yesterday.
Post Edited (01-11-19 10:53)
