DEATH OF RICHIE HAYWARD

Albeit belatedly I report the death on August 12 of Richie Hayward, the Little Feat co-founder and drummer and once a member of Bob Dylan's Never-Ending Tour band. He died of complications arising from liver cancer while waiting for a liver transplant operation. He was 64.

Here's his brief entry in The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia:

Hayward, Richie [1946 - ]
Richard Hayward was born on February 6, 1946 at Clear Lake, Iowa, where, four days before his Richie’s 13th birthday, BUDDY HOLLY, RITCHIE VALENS and the Big Bopper played their final gig, before getting into the plane that flew off towards Fargo, North Dakota, crashing and killing them in the snow en route. Undeterred, Hayward played his first gig as a drummer in a local hall soon afterwards.

In the mid-1960s, by now a ferociously accomplished drummer, Hayward co-founded a group with Lowell George, and after its disbandment and a brief gap, co-founded another with him, Little Feat. Hayward remained with it until it collapsed after the June 1979 death of Lowell George; but he was back with the group when it reformed in 1988. Meanwhile Hayward has also performed and recorded with everyone from Joan Armatrading to WARREN ZEVON.

In 2004 he became a shortlived member of Dylan’s Never-Ending Tour band, playing drums and percussion in a supporting rôle to GEORGE RECILE (who was having problems with one arm). Hayward played from the Tulsa Oklahoma concert of February 28 (not playing on the opening number or the encore songs this first night) through till the end of the April 4 concert in Washington D.C..