'Rowdy' Roddy Piper Dead at 61: His Best Music Moments

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Wrestling legend “Rowdy” Roddy Piper reportedly died from cardiac arrest in his sleep Thursday night at his Los Angeles home. He was 61.

Piper was found Friday and though he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2006, he was free of cancer at the time of his death, according to TMZ.

Known as one of the then-WWF’s biggest stars, Piper wrestled in the very first “Wrestlemania” in 1985 and was admitted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005. But he also parlayed that success into a musical career, however brief.

Friday, Cyndi Lauper posted this message honoring Piper:

As our own tribute to one of wrestling’s biggest personalities, here are Piper’s top musical moments:

Cyndi Lauper’s “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” Music Video

Piper starred in Cyndi Lauper’s music video for “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” as his “Rowdy” Roddy Piper character alongside some of the then-WWF’s biggest names at the time, including Captain Lou Albano, the Iron Sheik and André the Giant, launching a whole action-packed Goonies-inspired two-episode saga. Watch it here:

Roderick Piper, MTV VJ

At a time when MTV was a new phenomenon and its production value was seemingly nonexistent, Piper joined the channel for a one-off episode in the late '80s and from the looks of it just did whatever he wanted. The result is just plain bizarre.

Roddy Piper, “I’m Your Man” Single

Piper took a stab at a singing career in 1992, releasing a UK-only single and music video for his pop-rock song, “I’m Your Man.” It’s a playful number in which he asserts a certainty that he’s the man for you, balancing his tougher side working out in the video with a more gentle image splashing around at the beach.

“Rowdy" Roddy Piper, bagpipe entrance theme

At one point in his career, Piper used to actually play his own entrance music – a traditional bagpipe song that earned him his name.

In 2014, he told the Hillsboro Tribune in Oregon, “I was 15 years old, wrestling (as an) amateur and also boxing Golden Gloves. I was also playing bagpipes in a band — four bagpipers, a bass drummer and two snares — that was playing the Winnipeg Arena one night. Somebody didn’t show up to wrestle (veteran pro) Larry Hennig. I was going to get $25 to wrestle him and lose my amateur status. I had never even seen a match before. I went to play my bagpipe. I was wearing the kilt from the band. The announcer didn’t know who I was. He just knew my first name was Roddy. So he said, 'Here comes Roddy the Piper.’”

The name stuck with him and so did the bagpipes.