Alex Chilton of the 1970s rock band 'Big Star' performs at
the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, in
this 2004 file photo. (AP Photo/Jack Plunkett, File)
Singer and guitarist Alex Chilton, who topped the charts
as a teen with "The Letter" and later became a cult hero with
Big Star, has died. He was 59.
Chilton died at a hospital in New Orleans after experiencing
what appeared to be heart problems, said his longtime friend
John Fry.
Chilton was the gravel-voiced teenage singer for the pop-soul
outfit the Box Tops, whose 1967 hit "The Letter" opened with
the line "Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane ..." Their other
hits were "Soul Deep" and "Cry Like a Baby." Chilton grew up
in Memphis, Tenn., and formed the band with friends from
school.
"Alex was an amazingly talented person, not just as a
musician and vocalist and a songwriter, but he was
intelligent and well read and interested in a wide number of
music genres," said Fry, the owner of Memphis-based Ardent
Studios.
Chilton's short run with Big Star brought less mainstream
success but made him a cult hero to other rock musicians, as
evidenced by the title of the 1987 Replacements song, "Alex
Chilton." Big Star's three 1970s albums all earned spots on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest.
Chilton said in a 1987 interview with The Associated Press
that he didn't mind flying under the radar with Big Star and
later as a solo artist.
"What would be ideal would be to make a ton of money and have
nobody know about you," he said. "Fame has a lot of baggage
to carry around. I wouldn't want to be like Bruce
Springsteen. I don't need that much money and wouldn't want
to have 20 bodyguards following me."
"If I did become really popular, the critics probably
wouldn't like me all that much," he said. "They like to root
for the underdog."
Chilton had been scheduled to perform with Big Star on
Saturday at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin,
Texas.
"Alex Chilton always messed with your head, charming and
amazing you while doing so. His gift for melody was second to
none, yet he frequently seemed in disdain of that gift," the
festival's creative director, Brent Gulke, said in an e-mail.
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