Gary Numan had just received the ‘worst news’ ever, he explained to fans while performing on Saturday evening. Now, the 67-year-old musician has explained that his brother John died in the small hours of that morning, just minutes after they said goodbye to each other.
After it was reported yesterday the Tubeway Army star ‘broke down’ mid-song in Birmingham, prompting his wife to comfort him on stage, Gary’s fans have been concerned for the singer.
Now Gary has revealed in a heartbreaking post that his 60-year-old brother had a heart attack while walking to his car from Gary’s Telekon gig in Leeds on Friday evening.
Gary explained his anguish at the thought of John lying in a street ‘just yards away’ from him after they parted ways. He revealed a passer-by called an ambulance, but it was too late.
‘The last two days have been the hardest of my life. This is why,’ Gary wrote on social media this evening, having spent a few days trying to process his great loss.
‘My brother John died suddenly in the early hours of Saturday morning in Leeds, he was just 60 years old.
‘He had spent the evening with me at my Telekon show, catching up, swapping stories, telling me about his newly found love of reading. 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.
‘We were just enjoying being together again as we see each other so rarely these days. We talked for hours before and after the show but, eventually, I had to leave as we had another show 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), it was not far apparently, we said goodbye and I watched him walk away.
‘Sadly he never made it to his car, betrayed by his own heart. It will haunt me forever that we may have driven off not knowing that he was lying in a rainy street just yards away. Luckily a kind person saw him and called an ambulance, but it was too late.
‘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. This is to explain why I’m struggling.
Gary explained that he is continuing the tour because his father thinks he should, and because John’s wife said he would have wanted his brother to carry on.
‘I have no capacity at the moment to make decisions of any kind,’ Gary 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.
‘He loved Telekon. He was only 15 when I made it. 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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