Teddy Pendergrass Passes Away at 59

R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass has died after losing his longtime battle with colon cancer.

The 59-year-old famed R&B singer underwent surgery to fight the disease last year. He never fully recovered.

You may remember the late 70′s and early 80′s chart-topping singer escaped death back in 1982, after the brakes of his Rolls-Royce failed. This just before wrapping the luxury vehicle around a tree. Pendergrass was confined to a hospital bed for six-months following the crash. The passenger, a gay man dressed as a woman, suffered minor injuries. Julius Erving’s wife Turquoise was also in the car at the time of the crash.

Teddy will be missed. I grew up to his songs – my mother played “Love TKO” and “Come Go With Me” all the time. Pendergrass started off his career with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. But, he was more than a singer…Pendergrass was also a very good drummer. Don’t believe me? Ask his producers, Kenneth Gamble and Leon A. Huff aka Gamble and Huff.