MIAMI (Reuters) - Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Bo Diddley, who banged out hit songs powered by the relentless “Bo Diddley beat” that influenced rockers from Buddy Holly to U2, died on Monday at the age of 79.
Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., his management agency, Talent Consultants International, said in a statement.
“One of the founding fathers of rock ‘n’ roll has left the building he helped construct,” the statement said.
Diddley suffered a stroke during a concert in Iowa in May 2007 and was hospitalized in Omaha, Neb. In August 2007 he had a heart attack in Florida.
Garry Mitchell, Diddley’s grandson and one of more than 35 family members at the musician’s home when he died, said his death was not unexpected.
“There was a gospel song that was sung and he said ‘wow’ with a thumbs up,” Mitchell told Reuters, when asked to describe the scene at Diddley’s deathbed. “The song was ‘Walk Around Heaven’ and in his last words he stated that he was going to heaven.”
Why not see him in action on You Tube singing “Mona,” with Tom Petty.That beat -- fusing blues, R&B, Latin and African rhythms -- resurfaced over the decades in countless other rock and R&B songs, among them Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away,U2's “Desire,” or Johnny Otis' “Willie and the Hand Jive,” Bruce Springsteen's “She’s the One,” David Bowie's “Panic in Detroit,” or the Animals, the British Invasion band that recorded the tribute song “The Story of Bo Diddley” in 1964.
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