Alan Merrill, the songwriter behind “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll,” has died of the CCP virus at the age of 69, according to his daughter.
“The Coronavirus took my father this morning. I was given 2 minutes to say my goodbyes before I was rushed out. He seemed peaceful and as I left there was still a glimmer of hope that he wouldn’t be a ticker on the right hand side of the CNN/Fox news screen,” his daughter, Laura Merrill, said on Facebook on Sunday.
“I walked 50 blocks home still with hope in my heart. The city that I knew was empty. I felt I was the only person here and perhaps in many ways I was. By the time I got in the doors to my apartment I received the news that he was gone,” she added.
The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China before it was transmitted worldwide.
Laura Merrill added that she hopes people stay home amid the spread of the virus.
“If anything can come of this I beg of you to take this seriously. Money doesn’t matter. People are dying,” she said. “This thing is real … We probably won’t be able to mourn him properly with a funeral. I just lost the greatest love of my life and won’t be able to hug anyone because I’ve been exposed and need to self-quarantine for two weeks….alone,” Merrill continued. “I don’t know how to process this.”
According to Billboard, Merrill was the lead singer for the Arrows and sung the original version of “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll” and helped write the track. It became a massive hit after Joan Jett & the Blackhearts picked up the song and re-released it in the early 1980s.
Joan Jett herself also issued a statement about his passing on Sunday.
“I’ve just learned of the awful news that Alan Merrill has passed. My thoughts and love go to his family, friends and music community as a whole. I can still remember watching the Arrows on TV in London and being blown away by the song that screamed hit to me. With deep gratitude and sadness, wishing him a safe journey to the other side,” she wrote.
