Alex Chilton dies at 59; mercurial leader of the Box Tops, Big Star

Alex Chilton dies at 59; mercurial leader of the Box Tops, Big Star Alex Chilton, the mercurial leader of the Box Tops and Big Star who burst from the Memphis music scene in 1967 singing "The Letter" in the smoke-gravel voice of a grizzled soul man even though he was just 16 at the time, has died. He was 59. Chilton was pronounced dead in the emergency room of a New Orleans hospital Wednesday after complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains, longtime friend Pat Rainer said Thursday. The cause of death has not been determined, but Rainer said Chilton's wife, Laura Kerstin, said he appeared to have suffered a heart attack.

Chilton died just as many of his musical disciples in the alternative-rock world that Big Star's relentlessly tuneful and uncompromising guitar rock helped inspire were gathering in Austin, Texas, for the annual South By Southwest Music Conference.

Big Star was scheduled to play a reunion performance Saturday. John Fry, owner of the Ardent Studio in Memphis where Chilton recorded with the Box Tops and Big Star, said Thursday that the other band members had decided to proceed with the show as a tribute to Chilton.

"You can't throw a rock at South By Southwest," Fry said, "without hitting someone who was influenced by Big Star." The conference's creative director, Brent Grulke, said in a statement, "Alex Chilton always messed with your head, charming and amazing you while doing so. His gift for melody was second to none, yet he frequently seemed in disdain of that gift. He seemed as troubled by neglect as he did by fame. . . .

"It was impossible to know what he was thinking," Grulke's statement continued. "But it was always worth pondering, because that's what a truly great artist makes us do. And make no mistake: Alex Chilton was an artist of the very highest caliber." In fact, Chilton was immortalized in a song named after him by the Replacements, ATM Partsthe Minneapolis band from the '80s and '90s that was one of countless Big Star descendants.

"Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round," the Replacements' lead singer and songwriter, Paul Westerberg, sang, imagining how much better the world might have been had those millions actually heard Chilton's music. That, however, was a bit of willful rock 'n' roll wish fulfillment. Originally, Big Star's fans numbered not in the millions, but hundreds, perhaps thousands. Like the Velvet Underground, Big Star's influence developed well after the band no longer existed, influencing acts from R.E.M. and the Posies to the Bangles and Teenage Fanclub.

Eventually, millions did hear at least one Big Star song, "In the Street," used as the theme song for the Fox TV comedy series "That '70s Show."

Its cult status grew past the point that Chilton himself thought was reasonable.

"There are only three or four of the tunes, like 'In the Street' and 'When My Baby's Beside Me,' that still work for me," Chilton said in 1995. "I think in general Big Star is overrated."

William Alexander Chilton was born in Memphis on Dec. 28, 1950,ATM Parts one of four children of Sidney and Mary Chilton. Sidney Chilton was a jazz trumpeter and Mary was a classically trained musician who immersed their children in music, both recorded and live, often hosting jam sessions at home.