Gordon Lightfoot’s death hoax apparently started from Twitter
February 20th, 2010 - 9:17 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt
Calgary, Feb 20 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Gordon Lightfoot was pronounced dead on the Internet on Thursday, in a well-planned hoax. Apparently the news started from the social networking, and the micro blogging site Twitter, and from there it spread like wildfire to the radio, TV, news channels. Even Gordon Lightfoot heard his own death news on the radio in his car, as he was traveling to work.
So Gordon Lightfoot is very much alive, contrary to reports that he had died while touring North America. His death news on Thursday was confirmed as a hoax. The 71-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter is well known for his hits like “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, “Sundown”, and “Carefree Highway”. His publicist Bernie Fielder confirmed that the news came via “a Twitter coming out of Ottawa”. Gordon said that he is fine, but however his death hoax has been good for his career, as all of a sudden his music is in demand.
Musician and Lightfoot’s close friend Ronnie Hawkins said that the death hoax might have began with a prank played on him. Someone pretended to be Gordon’s grandson left a message for Ronnie saying that Gordon had died. A shocked Ronnie then told his wife Wanda, who sent out e-mails to some of their close friends and contacts in the music community, where the false news spread further. “Man I couldn’t be happier to hear (he was alive),” Hawkins said Thursday afternoon in an interview. “We had plans this summer.”
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Tags: canadian singer, carefree highway, close friends, death news, false news, gordon lightfoot, music community, news channels, publicist, radio tv, ronnie hawkins, singer songwriter, social networking, sundown, thursday afternoon, twitter, wife wanda, wildfire, wreck of the edmund, wreck of the edmund fitzgerald