A few days ago, Jeff Beck passed away. He was a guitar icon, playing with The Yardbirds. His influence had a great impact on the music world. Over the last few years, our heroes have been going away. Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom, Joey Jordison of Slipknot, and Bob Saget from Full House and America’s Funniest Home Videos are just some of the names I think of when I think “gone too soon”. These are people I thought would be around until I became old. But for these people to go away sooner than expected is something people always forget. You grew up with their existence and once they’re gone, it’s like a piece of you also went away, no matter how much attachment you had for that person.

I was so saddened to hear that Jeff Beck had died. Jeff Beck was a lovely man with a wicked sense of humour who played some of the best guitar music ever to come out of Great Britain. pic.twitter.com/2ggP3Lhpge

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) January 12, 2023

You can’t help but have this sense of emptiness when someone well-known goes away. I know I’ve talked about obsession before, but this is different. You don’t need to have known someone to express sadness. Since most of the news is now on the internet, you share your grief with a lot of people right away, which definitely doesn’t make it go away.

There’s nothing sadder in the world than for someone millions of people loved to be gone one day. Remember back in 2016 when people thought it was the worst year for celebrity deaths? Despite not reaching that level in recent years, it somehow always hits you the same when you hear someone is gone. We don’t want them to go away, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Death is inevitable, but we will always never want to see it coming, especially if that person meant something to us. The impact of our heroes is immeasurable and once they go away, a bigger part of the world is gone.