Killing Joke Guitarist Kevin 'Geordie' Walker Dead at 64 After Suffering Stroke

The guitarist died on Sunday, Killing Joke shared on Instagram

Kevin "Geordie" Walker, a founding member and guitarist for rock band Killing Joke, has died. He was 64.

On Sunday, Killing Joke announced the news of his death on social media.

"It is with extreme sadness we confirm that at 6:30am on 26th November 2023 in Prague, Killing Joke's legendary guitarist Kevin “Geordie” Walker passed away after suffering a stroke, he was surrounded by family," the Instagram post read. "We are devastated. Rest In Peace brother."

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Walker joined Killing Joke in 1979 after responding to an ad Jaz Coleman and Paul Ferguson put out in Melody Maker reading, "Want to be part of the Killing Joke? We mean it man. Total exploitation, total publicity, total anonymity. Bass and lead wanted.”

“This guy kept calling saying ‘Hi, I’ve never been in a band before, I’ve only ever played in my mum’s bedroom, but I’m the best guitarist ever,'" Coleman, 63, later said, according to The Guardian. “I couldn’t get rid of him … He comes in for a cuppa and spots my fishing rods, so we have a conversation about fishing for six hours. After which he announced that he had nowhere to live so I said he could stay with me. Geordie moved in three weeks before I actually heard him play. When he did it was like a fire from heaven.”

The group went on to release their debut album in 1980. Five years later, the group released what went on to be the gold-certified album Night Time.

The band had a brief hiatus in the early '90s and then again in 1996. In between, Walker went on to form rock group Murder, Inc. and recorded a debut album. He was also a part of London supergroup The Damage Manuel.

In 2003, a Killing Joke reformation happened with a self-titled album featuring celebrity fan Dave Grohl on the drums. The band followed with multiple albums across the 2000s and 2010s.

Reflecting on his time with the band, Walker told The Guardian in 2013: “When we started making records, playing gigs wasn’t that much different. You’d rehearse, you wrote the songs, you mic’d it up and you played it! And now if you’re not careful, you might not even see the f---ing drummer and the maker of the f---ing record."

He added, "It’s all bits of this, cut-and-paste. It can sound impressive on first listen but after subsequent listens, it’s lacking human imperfection. The imperfection is what makes it magical somehow.”

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Walker was born in Newcastle and earned his nickname "Geordie" due to his Geordie accent, according to Rolling Stone. He got his first guitar at age 15 and went on to influence artists like Metallica, Kurt Cobain and Jimmy Page. Per the outlet, Cobain admittedly ripped off Walker's riff on "Eighties" for "Come as You Are."

After the news of death broke, Killing Joke members paid tribute to the late guitarist on Instagram.

“No man was cooler than Geordie, one of the very best and most influential guitarists ever,” the band’s bassist, Martin “Youth” Glover,” wrote in an Instagram post.

Adding, "He was like Lee Van Cleef meets Terry Thomas via Noel Coward. Very charming, inscrutable and gracious, with a gentle effortless touch, (both on the guitar and making you feel welcome) that is, when he wasn’t shredding you with his razor-sharp articulate shrapnel.”

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