Guitarist Jack Sonni, a former member of the band Dire Straits, died on Thursday (8/31), aged 68. The information was confirmed on the band’s official profile on social media, but the cause of death was not revealed.
A multi-instrumentalist, Sonni was born in 1954 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and began to devote himself to music as a child. After studying piano and trumpet, he started playing guitar at the age of 14. His passion for the instrument led him to leave the literature class at the University of Connecticut to enter the Hartford Conservatory of Music.
In 1978, while working in a guitar shop in Manhattan, New York, he met brothers Mark and David Knopfler, who had started the British band the previous year. From the meeting was born a friendship and an invitation for Sonni to join the band in 1985, replacing guitarist Hal Lindes during the recording of the album “Brothers in Arms”, the biggest hit in the history of the band – and the album best selling of all time in the UK. .
Sonni followed the group on tour for the album, which stayed at number one on the Billboard Top 200 for nine weeks and sold over 30 million copies worldwide, driven by hits such as “Money for Nothing”, “So Far Away” , “Walk of Life” and the title track. During his tenure with the group, Sonni was affectionately known as “the other guitarist”, a reference to Mark Knopfler, lead guitarist.
Of his contributions to “Brothers in Arms”, one of the best known is the synth guitar on “That Man’s Too Strong”. However, after the album’s support tour, which included the historic Live Aid show with Sting, he left the band.
Singer-songwriter Mark Knopfler, leader of Dire Straits, mourned the artist’s death: “A sad farewell to our old friend. Jack was a real guitar aficionado, who loved to play, improvise and talk about guitars and amps all day long.” .
Watch the band’s performance at Live Aid 1985.
Source: Terra
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