Gary Numan has shared that his younger brother John died suddenly over the weekend, aged 60, just moments after they said goodbye following Numan’s show in Leeds.
In an emotional post to his social media channels, the British musician said the last few days had been “the hardest of his life” and that he was struggling to make sense of John’s death.
“He had spent the evening with me at my Telekon show, catching up, swapping stories, telling me about his newly found love of reading,” Numan wrote.
“We talked about authors, music, the loves of our lives, children, our Dad, steam trains, aeroplanes, accidents, friends, enemies, just as much as we could squeeze in in the time we had.”
The brothers talked into the early hours of the next day: “We were just enjoying being together again as we see each other so rarely these days.”
Numan, 67, said he eventually had to leave because he was due to perform in Birmingham later that night: “I hugged him at the door of our tour bus, I think it was about 12:20am, asked him how far he had to walk to get to his car (I always worried about him walking the streets at night).”
After saying goodbye, Numan watched his brother walk off. “Sadly he never made it to his car, betrayed by his own heart,” he wrote. “It will haunt me forever that we may have driven off not knowing that he was lying in a rainy street just yards away.”
A passerby apparently spotted John and called an ambulance, “but it was too late”, Numan told his followers.
“This is not a tribute to John, I can barely think straight enough to find the words for this let alone a fitting and deserving tribute to someone I loved more than the world, those words will come in time,” he said. “This is to explain why I’m struggling.”
Fans had been concerned for Numan after he broke down in tears during his Birmingham show midway through a performance of his song “Please Push No More”, telling the audience that he had received “the worst news ever”.
In his Instagram post, the “Cars” singer said he would be continuing with the tour because his family, including “John’s lovely wife”, had encouraged him to.
“I have no capacity at the moment to make decisions of any kind,” he admitted. “I’m drifting, broken, shell shocked, just watching one foot fall in front of the other. The emotion overwhelms and then backs away, it screams and then whispers.
“This is the worst moment of my life and I have no idea what to do, other than to continue doing the only thing I know how to do, the thing John was always so proud of.”
John was apparently a huge fan of Telekon, Numan’s No 1 album released in 1980. “He was only 15 when I made it,” he said. “So this tour is no longer a celebration of an album, it’s a tribute to John, my brother, the best brother a man could ever have.”
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