American folk musician David Olney, 71,?said sorry to his fans before he shut his eyes never to open them again, during a live performance in Florida.?He died after suffering a heart attack while performing on stage at the 30A Songwriter Festival in Santa Rosa Beach in Florida.?
A fellow singer-songwriter,?Amy Rigby,?who was performing with Olney, shared a moving post about the incident, on Facebook.?
Rigby wrote: 'He was very still, sitting upright with his guitar on, wearing the coolest hat and a beautiful rust suede jacket ¡ I want the picture to be as graceful and dignified as it was because it at first looked as if he was just taking a moment'.
'Doctors in the audience and 30A folks were all working so hard to get him to come to. It's hard to post about this because I can't really believe he's gone', she further added.
Scott Miller, another performer present at the venue, noted that David did not drop the guitar as it happened and passed away "as easy and gentle as he was."?
'He never dropped his guitar or fell off his stool. It was as easy and gentle as he was', Scott wrote in a Facebook post. 'We got him down and tried our best to revive him until the EMT¡¯s arrived. The world lost a good one last night. But we still have his work. And it still inspires. And always will. RIP'.
Olney is widely regarded as a founding father of Americana. He?was born in Rhode Island in 1948 and moved to Nashville in 1973. Here, he formed a band called the X-Rays.?As a solo artist, he released more than 20 albums, reports Guardian.?His work has been covered by Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Young, and many others.