HE IS FINE - the rumour of his death was a mistake!

[charlene]

video clip - from tv today: (links stopped working -this is my camera video of the TV)

You Tube

Lightfoot very much alive, despite reports of death

CTV.ca News Staff
Published Thursday, February 18, 2010 6:35PM EST
Celebrated singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot was in his car on Thursday when he heard some curious news over the radio: Gordon Lightfoot was dead.

Contrary to the report, however, Lightfoot had just had a dentist appointment and was driving to his Toronto office.
"My phone was ringing off the hook in my office when I got there," said Lightfoot, who put the rumour to rest in an interview with CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss.

Not only did the singer, who is 71, have to field numerous calls and set the media straight, he also had to get in touch with his five children in the Toronto area and let them know he was okay.
"I just made it my business to get on the phone and jump right in there and let everybody know it isn't so."
Despite the severity of the situation, Lightfoot appeared to be taking it lightly.
"I was shocked of course," he said, joking that "it's the best day for airplay that we've had in weeks."
The rumour appears to have started on Twitter, and in turn was spread across the Internet when several Canwest media websites posted the news.
Lightfoot said he wasn't sure how the rumour began on Twitter.
"I'll just keep moving forward," he said. "I know it's going to sort itself out."
Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ont., and has been a major musical force since the early 1960s.
He is considered one of Canada's best-loved musicians, gaining fame with songs such as "If You Could Read My Mind" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

[bjm7777]

I just watched the CTV interview with Paul Bliss - had to laugh, that's for sure. But, any publicity is good publicity with the upcoming Spring tour soon underway.
Somebody on the CBC site wrote that Gord was "FAMILY". I thought that was well put.

[bjm7777]

...and I should know better than to look for stories on the internet when all I had to do is hit the links that our fine moderator has posted here for us. Thank you much...

[fezo]

How curious. The CTV site puts me through a commercial and then when teh actual content is to up pops a dialog box that says "Canada only." Swell.

[bjm7777]

Originally Posted by jj

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment...-not-dead?bn=1

too bad the Lloyd Robertson rumour was a hoax...when he does pack it in (and move to FL or wherever) i hope he takes the entire CTV (Olympic) crew with him

Too funny, JJ!

[buzzard]

The CTV interviews were fascinating and very upbeat. Also you don't see him often speaking publicly with his specs. He looked very relaxed.

Brian

[Jenn]

Lll!

[charlene]

http://www.torontosun.com/news/colum.../12937261.html - video at link

Thursday, February 18, 2010
Joe Warmington
News of Lightfoot's demise greatly exaggerated
Last Updated: February 18, 2010 7:35pm

Click here to watch the videoGood thing Gordon Lightfoot has a sense of humour. Even about his own supposed death.
If only you could have read Gordon Lightfoot’s mind when he heard the news he was dead.
“I looked in the mirror in my car and said ‘I don’t look dead,’ ” the Canadian music legend said jokingly Thursday night.

But if you believe what you read, for several hours Thursday, the iconic singer was no longer with us.

Twitter said so.

So did many reputable media websites and news outlets.

“Canadian icon Gordon Lightfoot dead at 71,” was the typical headline posted.

Turns out reports of Lightfoot’s death were not just exaggerated but outright wrong.

“It’s crazy,” the Orillia-born superstar singer of such hits as The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, If You Could Read My Mind, Sundown and Rainy Day People said in an interview. “I don’t know where it came from.”

Lightfoot started his day by dropping into his office at Early Morning Productions at Yonge and Bloor Sts., and then drove to a dental appointment.

Then he got the shock of his lifetime.

“I was listening to Charles Adler on AM 640 when I heard him say I was dead,” said the 16-time Juno winner, member of the Order of Canada and Canada’s Walk of Fame. “I was stunned. I immediately went into the office and had them call, and then I went on with Charles to let everyone know I am here.”

It was great radio for the nationally syndicated Alder, who so far is the only media person to admit his error. “What a relief said host with egg on face,” Adler said jokingly last night. “I have never been happier to be wrong about a story.”

Not every day you get a story wrong and a scoop in announcing that at the same time.

But this is the fast-paced media world that is Twitter and the like. You can’t blame a national radio host for going live on the air with something posted on news websites.

Some are calling it an Internet hoax, but that does not take off the hook the mainstream newspapers that went with the story — quoting Rompin’ Ronnie Hawkins as the primary source.

Lightfoot said at first he thought it was humourous. But then came the reality that he has a young daughter in school. “She heard about it and was upset,” he said. “I had to reassure her I was okay.”

It shows how dangerous news-by-tweet can be.

One call to Early Morning Productions put the false report to rest — which is what the Sun’s music writer Jane Stevenson did. “I’m fine, thank you,” Lightfoot told her. “The whole thing is a hoax. I’m in great health. I’m doing fine. I’m running around right now, doing my errands.”

Yet the rumours persisted on line.

Gordon is so strong and such a battler, it would be hard to imagine him going down without a fight. His survival from a 2002 stomach aneurysm, and his comeback to touring, is stuff of legend.

“When I got the call about the report I didn’t believe it because my wife, Carol, and I just had dinner with him and he looks great,” close friend George Bigliardi said. “But I have to admit for a few minutes there I was very upset that our country lost one of its greatest ever entertainers and a very special person. We are so relieved it was wrong.”

When I tracked down Gordon at a downtown office building yesterday he had a grin on his face and a gleam in his eye. Wearing a Canada pin and a yellow Support the Troops pin, he told me he had never had a stranger day.

“I am too busy to be dead,” Lightfoot said with a smile. “I have a rehearsal (Friday) and next week we are heading to the United States for 10 shows before coming back home to play at Casino Rama.”

He is very much alive and things are going great. Turns out the sun has not gone down just yet. “Heck,” Lightfoot said, laughing. “I haven’t had this much publicity and radio air-time in years.”

joe.warmington@sunmedia.ca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_co...&v=4TbEcUA5BVY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TbEc...ature=youtu.be

[charlene]

http://www.charlesadler.com/2010/02/...uch-alive.html - audio on radio.
talking about daughter hearing news before he could get to her..

[byKimberly]

Geez... glad I heard about this bizarre situation post rather than during. Can't even imagine how one would take the news knowing that they are breathing at the same time...
Kimberly

[charlene]

Ronnie Hawkins talks about the rumour:
http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/lo...b=MontrealHome

[ColoradoSue]

There was also an internet rumour today about Whitney Houston dying &/or dead as well.

It aint true.

As for Gordy, wellllll....let me put it this way:


"Cockroaches, as a group, have been around far longer than man, over 200 million years, and they are survivors. They can withstand extremes in heat or cold, lack of food, lack of water, and even extremes in radiation. The last has been studied. At a research station operated by Oregon State University, various species of cockroaches were subjected to radiation many times higher than the lethal amount for humans. Not only did they survive, they multiplied.
This means that in the event of a nuclear war, man may be wiped off the map, but the cockroaches would probably continue to survive."

....and Gordy will probably outlive the cockroaches--which is fine with me!


"I am not afraid of death, I just dont want to be around when it happens"

Woody Allen

[Jesse Joe]

Watch & listen to all those little video & audio clips here this morning, all very interesting & informative.

"I was shocked of course," he said, joking that "it's the best day for airplay that we've had in weeks." ~gl~ (lol ! pretty cool !)


The Legend lives on !

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

I'm also glad I heard the correction before the rumour. I haven't heard anything about Gord in Australia's media this week. (They might have been more cautious after falling for recent hoaxes saying Jeff Goldblum had died and Van Morrison had had another child at the age of 64.)

Some interesting comments added by readers of those newspaper reports about the Lightfoot hoax:
"Now he just needs to make a hit song based on this."
"C'mon Gord ... There's got to be a song in this!"

If it's true that Grant Avenue Studios have been working with Gord over the last few weeks on a possible record from his many concerts at Massey Hall, that song (recorded in a studio or in an upcoming concert anywhere) would be a popular bonus track.

[charlene]

Toronto Sun:

[charlene]

YouTube- CP24 - Lightfoot dispels death...

YouTube- Ronnie Hawkins talks of phone call...

[imported_Next_Saturday]

and from the NY Times:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ghtfoot&st=cse
February 19, 2010, 9:57 am
Gordon Lightfoot Lives!
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Reuters The singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot.

If you could read Gordon Lightfoot’s mind right now, what a tale his thoughts would tell. On Thursday, the Canadian news media (not to mention the general population of the Twitterverse) was abuzz with apparent news that Mr. Lightfoot, 71, the smooth-voiced singer-songwriter of “Sundown” and “Carefree Highway,” had died while on tour. But like the man sang in “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” the legend lives on: Reuters reported that Mr. Lightfoot called into Toronto’s CP24 news station to say he was very much alive. “It seems like a bit of a hoax,” Mr. Lightfoot said. “I was quite surprised to hear it myself.” He added: “I feel fine.”

The mistaken report of Mr. Lightfoot’s death, which appears to have originated on Twitter, was carried by the Canwest News Service as well as the Web sites of the Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen, and Calgary Herald newspapers, all of which have since corrected their stories. Mr. Lightfoot, meanwhile, has walked away like a movie star who gets burned in a three-way script, whatever that means.

[fezo]

Thanks for posting that. Couldn't get it here in the states.

That newswoman is annoying! Kept stepping on Gord's lines. If you are interviewing someone it would eb nice to let them talk...

[formerlylavender]

OMG! I had a meeting this morning, so I didn't check in first thing like I normally do. I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad this isn't true. This fine Friday would have turned into a Black Friday for sure. LLL!

[charlene]

YouTube- CTV - Gordon Lightfoot talks about the...

[jj]

Originally Posted by MistyMoppens

... a post by Meredith...
"Have you ever loved someone so much that you get tears in your eyes whenever you think of them? I love you, Daddy... <3"

that's a beauty, kate...i'm struggling with placing those words coming out of the saucy, young gal with the multicoloured mohawk hair, but i should know better than to judge a book by it's cover

i love some of the other quotes and info in this thread also

- Gord, too busy to be dead....lol, true, this is no time to croak, there's some interesting olympic hockey games coming up...love that he's got his canuck and troop support pins happening

- thanks for all the links char and for that new live CD update, gordh

- dave, you're right...a new fun tune about this all, something like "no hotel"... maybe "no funeral home"?

- bj, just having fun with Lloyd and all...some irritate me for sure but i do dig williams and laflamme...pierre mcguire, agh

maybe GL was in on the hoax and it's a publicity stunt for his new cd...i am going to play his last CD backwards and listen for any muddle "I'll bury gord" message

good health to Gord and God bless Mer

[Auburn Annie]

Well holy moly I haven't checked corfid in a few days and what do I find but this! Seems to have been confined mostly to the greater Toronto area - hadn't seen it in US reports, amazingly enough, either reports of his "death" or corrections. And from TWITTER???? Geez Louise, such is the state of "journalism" these days.

Welcome "back" - again, Gord.

[charlene]

it was all over the place Annie but it's all been pulled from the internet..
just as fast as it was sent out it disappeared..
wowza..

[GJA]

Just heard about this awful rumor today. Thank goodness it wasn't true. I love you, Gord!

[formerlylavender]

Ronnie Hawkins is too cute and funny! What a nice friend Gord is to call him on his birthday.

Thanks for posting all the links, Char.