Reeling from the shock death of his brother on the weekend, veteran rocker Gary Numan has dedicated the rest of his tour to his memory.
New wave pioneer Gary Numan shocked fans at his show at O2 Academy in Birmingham on Saturday when he broke down in tears during his set. NME reports that Numan, 67, faltered during “Please Push No More” before telling the audience he had just received “the worst news ever”. Numan’s wife, Gemma O’Neill, took to the stage to comfort him before the “Cars” singer continued the show.
Later that day, Numan took to Instagram to explain that his brother, John Webb, had died suddenly at the age of 60. Numan and Webb had spent the previous evening together in Leeds, where Numan played the O2 Academy as part of a tour celebrating the 45th anniversary of his album, Telekon. In a heartbreaking post, Numan explained that his brother may have passed only minutes after the two said their goodbyes.
“I hugged him at the door of our tour bus,” Numan wrote. “I think it was about 12:20am, asked him how far he had to walk to get to his car (I always worried about him walking the streets at night), it was not far apparently, we said goodbye and I watched him walk away. Sadly he never made it to his car, betrayed by his own heart. It will haunt me forever that we may have driven off not knowing that he was lying in a rainy street just yards away. Luckily a kind person saw him and called an ambulance, but it was too late.”
Numan went on to explain that he will be continuing the tour at the urging of friends and family.
“My Dad thinks I should, [and] because John’s lovely wife said John would want me to. I have no capacity at the moment to make decisions of any kind. I’m drifting, broken, shell shocked, just watching one foot fall in front of the other. The emotion overwhelms and then backs away, it screams and then whispers. This is the worst moment of my life and I have no idea what to do, other than to continue doing the only thing I know how to do, the thing John was always so proud of. He loved Telekon. He was only 15 when I made it. So this tour is no longer a celebration of an album, it’s a tribute to John, my brother, the best brother a man could ever have.”
Our thoughts are with Numan and his family.
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