Rock drummer spent four decades in prison for killing mother
LOS ANGELES — Jim Gordon, the rock ’n’ roll session drummer who played on classic records by Eric Clapton, George Harrison and The Beach Boys but suffered from growing mental health problems and spent the second half of his life in prison for killing his mother, has died at 77.
Gordon died Monday at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed Thursday. It’s believed he died of natural causes, but the official cause will be determined by the Solano County coroner.
Gordon, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, had been in prison for four decades.
From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, few drummers were more in demand than Gordon, a Los Angeles native and protege of the all-time versatile session man, Hal Blaine. Gordon had been drumming since his teens and — early in his career — was part of Phil Spector’s celebrated studio ensemble, “The Wrecking
Crew.”
Gordon eventually played on the Beach Boys’ landmark, experimental “Pet Sounds” and the Byrds’ “The Notorious Byrd Brothers,” Harrison’s postbeatles triple album “All Things Must Pass” and Steely Dan’s jazz-rock “Pretzel Logic.” He worked with a wide range of top acts, from Joan Baez and Jackson Browne to Merle Haggard and Tom Petty. One of his notable credits was a drum break on the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache” that has been frequently sampled by rap music artists, among them Jay-z, Busta Rhymes and Kool Moe Dee.
In June 1983, Gordon attacked his 71-year-old mother, Osa Gordon, with a hammer and fatally stabbed her with a butcher knife. He claimed that a voice told him to do it.