A flood of tributes have been paid to Leon Russell, who died on Saturday [November 12].

His wife, Jan Bridges, released the following statement:

Advertisement

“We thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers during this very, very difficult time. My husband passed in his sleep in our Nashville home. He was recovering from heart surgery in July and looked forward to getting back on the road in January. We appreciate everyone’s love and support.”

Elton John – who collaborated with Russell on the 2010 album The Union – called him a “mentor, inspiration”.

Advertisement

Other tributes came from a cross section of musicians including Booker T Jones, Steve Martin, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Chaka Khan, Okkervil River, Nathan Followill and Whoopi Goldberg.

https://twitter.com/SteveMartinToGo/status/797843324380004352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The December 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on Pink Floyd, plus a free CD compiled by Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner that includes tracks by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sleaford Mods, Yo La Tengo, Can. Elsewhere in the issue, there’s TheDamned, Julia Holter, Desert Trip, Midlake, C86, David Pajo, Nils Frahm and the New Classical, David Bowie, Tim Buckley, REM, Norah Jones, Morphine, The Pretenders and more plus 140 reviews