Created Equal: New book shares lessons about grief from the widows of rock musicians

When Lori Tucker-Sullivan’s husband Kevin died from cancer, she took it upon herself to merge her life-long passion of writing with music, a hobby she shared with her late husband. Though her husband was not a musician, the subject of her writing became clear after she heard Yoko Ono talk about life after her husband, John Lennon, was killed. Ono continued to build a name for herself as a multimedia artist and activist, and that inspired Tucker-Sullivan to explore other stories of women in the spotlight who lost their husbands.

Tucker-Sullivan interviewed widows of rock musicians who navigated the complicated aftermath of their partner’s passing. Some of these women’s lives were upended by legal battles, other’s reputations were distorted because of who their husbands were. Like Yoko Ono, many of these women were committed to defining their own narrative. In Tucker-Sullivan’s book “I Can’t Remember If I Cried: Rock Widows on Life, Love, and Legacy,” she documents and shares those stories. She joined Created Equal to discuss what lessons she learned from these women who persevered through all the commotion.

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Guest

Lori Tucker-Sullivan is a music writer and author. She says these women and their stories are a good reminder that life goes on. “…regardless of the depth of your loss, you can keep going, you can find purpose, you can find new love.” She goes on to say, “I hope they take from it that people who 10, 15 years on still have grief in their lives, but it’s not the central focus of their lives.”

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.