Tragic Details About Steppenwolf

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Goldy McJohn might be Steppenwolf's most famous keyboard player, but he wasn't the only one: John Kay perhaps unsurprisingly fired McJohn at one point, bringing on Andy Chapin for "Hour of the Wolf." It was released in 1975 before one of the band's many break-ups, and Chapin went on to become a member of Ricky Nelson's band. When Nelson was killed in a New Year's Eve 1985-1986 plane crash, he wasn't alone: Although the pilot and copilot survived, six others lost their lives that day. Tragically, Chapin was one of them. 

Dying in a plane crash is horrible enough, but according to Chapin's sister-in-law, Laurel Barzie, Chapin had been worried about the plane for a long time. Engine trouble had been a regular occurrence, and in an interview after the crash, she told The Dallas Morning News (via The New York Times), "He didn't want to go on that airplane. He complained and complained for months. He was going to quit the job because he didn't want to go on that plane. ... He didn't trust it."

Although rumors started circulating almost immediately and headlines claimed that the crash had been drug-related, the final report of the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that although they couldn't tell precisely what had happened, drugs were ruled out as the cause. Instead, the fire was believed to have been started by a malfunctioning cabin heater. Chapin's worries had been well-founded. 

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