{"id":13125,"date":"2025-05-08T11:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T15:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/?p=13125"},"modified":"2025-05-08T11:44:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T15:44:19","slug":"remembering-jill-sobule-1959-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/2025\/05\/08\/remembering-jill-sobule-1959-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Jill Sobule, 1959-2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Singer-Songwriter
Singer-Songwriter Jill Sobule died in a tragic house fire on May 1, 2025. She was 66.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Jill Sobule, 66, was groundbreaking and much revered and loved singer-songwriter and human rights activist best-known for her 1995 breakthrough hit single \u201cI Kissed a Girl\u201d (the first openly LGBTQ-themed song to crack the Billboard Top 20) and \u201cSupermodel\u201d from that year\u2019s popular \u201cClueless\u201d film soundtrack. Both songs appear on the first of her 12 albums. In the week since her tragic death in a Minnesota house fire on May 1, 2025 sent shockwaves through the folk and singer-songwriter communities, many of her fellow artists have expressed their grief and shared personal reflections on Facebook. A sampling follows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to fathom that a person so full of life \u2013 such a life force \u2013 is no longer with us. We were compatriots for 30 years. We wrote a song about the 70s together. She said, in utter sincerity, \u2018We have to have Patty Hearst. We thought about her so much \u2026\u2019 And in 2015, she was on stage about to sing \u201cI Kissed a Girl\u201d in Philly and I was in the dressing room reading that marriage equality had just passed. I walked right onto the stage \u2026 and kissed her. Because it was Jill, and I knew she\u2019d be cool with it! And she was! In my heart forever, Jill\u201d <\/p>\n

— Dar Williams<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“Goodbye, angel-woman. Your light and humor touched me and so many. This world is just not as bright without you in it. Thank you for singing about kissing and being with girls and for being irreverent and illuminated and effervescent and brilliant.”<\/p>\n

— Paula Cole<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Here’s a link to an official video for “I Kissed a Girl”: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LUi11Cz4ZUg<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

\u201cJill Sobule was a funny, insightful, one-of-a-kind talent. She was a champion of misfits and weirdos. She was the Queen of outcasts. We hit the road together last year and I was amazed by her wide-eyed wonder of the world. We made a vow to tour more together and I had talked about having her coming to teach at the retreat I started for songwriters up in New England. She would\u2019ve shook place to its foundations. Just by being herself.<\/p>\n

And her songs\u2014 Just when a song seemed like it was headed in a straight line she\u2019d find a way to make it spin around your mind with a 180-degree turn. They were perfect three-minute masterpieces of pop and folk with a broad range of topics that pulled empathetic laughter and insight to your soul.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 We don\u2019t have many people like her on the planet. She was Tinkerbell, hitting us on the head with a magic wand.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Ellis Paul<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never forget how much fun that song swap lineup was \u2013 me, Ellis, Paul, and Jill Sobule. We did a handful of really wonderful shows and honestly, I don\u2019t remember where, but backstage Jill and I bonded with the idea of someday doing an album of the saddest songs we could think of. When we were last hanging out, the list looked like this:<\/p>\n

Ballad Of The Sad Young Men
\nSweet Bitter Love
\nDo What You Gotta Do
\nTrain Off The Track<\/p>\n

While we were waiting to go on, I\u2019d play one of these songs and Jill and I would cry, and then try to put on some kind of game face while laughing for the set<\/p>\n

Just last year I had signed with a new agency, Black Oak Artists, and Jill and I shared an agent and there were plans for sending us out together to do shows. <\/p>\n

Tomorrow really is never guaranteed. I will forever feel the loss of not having that future time together. <\/p>\n

Goodbye Goddess. I\u2019ll dedicate this Monday night\u2019s Pajama Party to you, and I\u2019ll string together the saddest songs I can come up with, because I know you\u2019d give me a wink and a nod.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Vance Gilbert<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGutted by the news of Jill Sobule\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

She was a friend for many years and I quite simply adored her – her delightfully witty and musically ambitious recordings first, then as a person once we actually met. <\/p>\n

She played our MPress charity benefits at places like \u201cMo Pitkins\u201d in downtown NYC starting in the early 2000\u2019s, donating her song \u201cJet Pack\u201d to our Hurricane Relief compilation and we became fast friends who had so much in common it felt like an instant sisterhood, aka mishpuchah. I first played with her at the old Cutting Room – it was a party for Women In Rock magazine I think\u2026I had been a fan for years but then she was just a friend – and whether performing generously as part of our \u201cBravery On Fire\u201d Women\u2019s Cancer benefit in lockdown, or laughing backstage at a Joe\u2019s Pub tribute to the wonderful Judy Collins\u2026or kvelling at opening night of her fantastic [Off-Broadway] show \u201cF*ck 7th Grade\u201d – she had a way of making so many of us feel seen, included, inspired, comforted and challenged. Her powerful presence as a performer was a beautiful thing – utterly original, vulnerable and courageous.<\/p>\n

Jill\u2019s wordplay and melodic sensibility was unparalleled and for me she was on par with my #1, Elvis Costello – so much intelligence and also so much heart in her songs. No one looked like her, no one sounded like her – the character of her voice itself was as unique as they come and her work ethic and prolificness inspired me on a daily basis. I literally looked at her FB wall every day – where was dear, talented, hilarious and hardworking Jill? <\/p>\n

Following her and witnessing her ongoing creative adventurous and activism gave me continual hope that there was a way to do this pop music thing with integrity – to make a genuine difference, joyfully and fearlessly and with as much chutzpah and irreverence as beauty and light. I looked up to her unabashedly, but she made me feel appreciated and understood. She was proof positive not only that meeting your heroes can be fantastic but that the likeminded, down-to-earth heroes can become family. <\/p>\n

Love and condolences to her friends, family and fans. May her memory be a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Rachael Sage<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 We met around 1998, when Eric Lowen and I were talking with her about writing together. We never got there, but more than 20 years later, we saw each other three times in four months, at Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights in September (when Jesse Lynn Madera was opening for her, and I sat in), in October at McCabe’s Guitar Shop (on another shared bill sit-in with Jesse Lynn), and in January when we all were playing the 30A Songwriters Festival. We got to spend much more time together then, hung and laughed, talked her into doing a cruise, and resolved to do some more hanging, and writing, soon. Jill was richly talented, artful, quirky, unique, sweet and soulful, and a hoot and a half. I adored her, and am blessed to call her my friend. Color me gutted.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Dan Navarro<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOh my god, no, my god\u2026what an insane tragedy.<\/p>\n

My friend and fellow truth-slinging, life-affirming, hardworking, wide-open-hearted and immensely talented musician Jill Sobule just died in a house fire.<\/p>\n

She was such a force majeur of musical power and brought hope and joy and mad laughter to so many people\u2026and like many of my friends who made made made and toured toured toured constantly, she was always coming up with the next beautiful idea, always responding to the moment with a musical quip and smart response, and always putting her heart into her art.<\/p>\n

She was a crowd-funded wonder, an unapologetic queerdo and a great communicator. Compassionate. Kind. And a truly good friend who always came calling with concern when shit hit the fan with me in my always-toppling world and business.<\/p>\n

And my god, she was a sharp diamond of a songwriter, satirizing, poking, writing on the edge, cutting through clich\u00e9s to the heart of the matter in a way only a long-suffering journey woman songwriter can. I loved her. I loved her work. Her voice was becoming funnier and funnier and more sharply critical of the regime. We have lost an important voice today, an important folk hero\u2026<\/p>\n

To the community: waste no time. Act from love. Life can vanish in a second.<\/p>\n

Dear dear beautiful Jill\u2026rest in power, rest in song, rest in community, wherever you\u2019ve gone.<\/p>\n

We will play your songs and we will continue the musical fight for freedom and laughter and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Amanda Palmer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMan. How do you even write about Jill Sobule? When the breaking news broke, I was en route to Stowe, Vermont and I was looking at my maps to make a turn to not miss my exit. Boom! The news alert telling me that Jill Sobule died in a house fire. I gasped out loud. <\/p>\n

She had just sent me a video message in February saying that we needed to do a tour together. And why hadn\u2019t it happened yet. With her typical amazing delivery and east coast accent with attitude it really made me smile. She was in the middle of doing a sound check with KC Turner and she had KC video the message with KC saying, \u201cI\u2019d book that tour!\u201d And now she\u2019s gone. Just like that. <\/p>\n

There are certain singer songwriters that grab you and have a way with words and delivery and you just instantly fall in love with them. Jill just had it. I first met her back in the 90s and she was simply the coolest. <\/p>\n

\"Jill
Jill Sobule<\/figcaption><\/figure>I remember getting to hang with her backstage at 4th and B in San Diego. She was touring with Warren Zevon and she introduced me to Warren. When I shook his hand I felt so nervous but Jill just had a way of making everything seem so at ease. She was gracious, warm, inquisitive, and funny as all get-out.<\/p>\n

We really lost a good one folks. One of the best to ever do it. Up there with the great Dan Bern. Seriously legendary. She\u2019s leaving quite a legacy of music. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m so sad our tour will never happen. It would\u2019ve been so fun to listen to her play every night, and I just know we would\u2019ve written some songs. I would\u2019ve learned so much. <\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s a shooting star somewhere up there. Floating around. Hopefully spreading joy. Any interaction with Jill always made me smile. She\u2019s a gem and a peach and now a long gone troubadour. We were lucky to have her…” <\/p>\n

— Steve Poltz<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jill Sobule, 66, was groundbreaking and much revered and loved singer-songwriter and human rights activist best-known for her 1995 breakthrough hit single \u201cI Kissed a Girl\u201d (the first openly LGBTQ-themed song to crack the Billboard Top 20) and \u201cSupermodel\u201d from that year\u2019s popular \u201cClueless\u201d film soundtrack. Both songs appear on the first of her 12 albums. In the week since her tragic death in a Minnesota house fire on May 1, 2025 sent shockwaves through the folk and singer-songwriter communities, many of her fellow artists have expressed their grief and shared personal reflections on Facebook. A sampling follows.<\/p>\n

[Click on the headline to continue 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