Photo: TRISTAR PICTURES
“Over the past three years, Q became one of my closest friends and we were in touch almost daily, sometimes to talk about the film or her music but mostly just to talk about our lives and everyday matters,” Luckey’s friend, fillmakerEva Aridjis, toldRSan email.
“Q had one of those life forces that you simply can’t imagine being extinguished or ceasing to exist, because it was so vital and radiant and exuberant,” Aridjis reportedly continued. “Despite having had a very hard life, she was not jaded at all. On the contrary — she was full of enthusiasm, passion and humor. And she was also full of plans. At the time of her death, we were planning a ‘comeback concert’ with some of her original bandmates.”
Luckey was born in Neptune, New Jersey in 1960 and sang in a youth choir after growing interested in music, according toPitchfork. She moved to New York City at 18 to pursue a music career and started performing and recording as Q Lazzarus during the 1980s, perRS.
At one point, Luckey worked as a taxi cab driver — and once picked up filmmaker Jonathan Demme, who, Aridjis toldRS, heard Luckey playing her own music in the cab and expressed interest in it.
Lazzarus also appeared in Demme’s 1993 filmPhiladelphiaand performed an onscreen cover of the Talking Heads' “Heaven.”
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Though Luckey’s music appeared in prestigious films likeThe Silence of the LambsandPhiladelphia, she never obtained a record deal, according toRS. Luckey subsequently disappeared from both public and her own personal life; Aridjis told the outlet, “[N]ot even her best friends or bandmates knew what had happened to her.”
“In August 2019, I got into a car service Q was driving and after chatting with her for a few minutes I figured out that it was her,” Aridjis toldRS. “We both felt that our meeting was fated, and shortly after that we started making a documentary about her life and music together which we’ve been working on for the past three years. We were just preparing to film the final scenes when she tragically and unexpectedly passed away last month at the age of 61.”
“These songs have never been released before, but there are so many good ones in various genres and many of them will feature in the film and on the soundtrack,” Aridjis toldRS. “Q had spent the past 20-plus years driving cars and buses, and couldn’t wait to return to making music.”
Aridjis reportedly wrote, “Q had a spirit that was truly unique and irreplaceable, not just for her loved ones in their daily lives but to the creative community as a whole,” in her email.
“As her collaborator, I am now more determined than ever to get her incredible story and amazing music out into the world,” Aridjis added. “The film will no longer end with her comeback concert and her ‘resurrection’ — but I am glad that the world will still get to hear her story — in her own words and through her own songs — a precious task which she entrusted me with and which I will be forever grateful for.”
source: people.com
