What the world would have been like had he never have been born is unimaginable. It would be hard to argue that any other individual has had as much influence on music as this man. I won’t name his innovations here as they are so ever-present and deeply engrained in all of us that to describe them would be as pointless as notating the rhythms of our hearts and lungs.

I don’t feel it is appropriate to speak of loss in this situation. When a man dies who has contributed so much to music, more notably Soul Music, and more personally has inspired and architected my own very livelihood, I think speaking of loss would be ungrateful. Let us rather give thanks for what he gave us; for every every drop of his sweat that, along with his moans and grunts, bathed the stages and phonographs of our world in sweet raw Soul. Let us get up and celebrate his life with our music, and ours with his, just like he showed us.

May his soul rest in peace, but let his spirit keep working tirelessly among us.”