The “Last DJ” has died.
According to SiriusXM, Jim Ladd, who for more than 50 years rocked the airways with classic rock and inspired Tom Petty’s Top 40 hit, “The Last DJ,” died Sunday at the age of 75 in his Los Angeles home.
“SiriusXM remembers Jim Ladd, legendary freeform rock DJ. For over 50 years, he championed classic rock and interviewed many of the greatest artists in his Los Angeles studios and on SiriusXM’s Deep Tracks channel,” SiriusXM shared on social media on Dec. 18.
Fellow Los Angeles classic rock DJ and longtime friend Uncle Joe Benson was devastated after hearing the news on Monday afternoon.
“We just heard about this about 20 minutes ago. I just, I just I don’t know, it’s very sad,” he said in a whisper. “I haven’t just figured this out here, what is going on here.”
Benson remembers deep conversations with Ladd about music and all sorts of other topics. But it was when talking about music that Ladd really became passionate.
“Some of them were hilarious, and some of them were like ‘Hey this is an important song, listen to me,’” he said.
Born in 1948, Ladd became a legend in rock radio after beginning his career at KLOS in 1969 before moving to KMET from 1974-87. He was also a prominent DJ on KLOS from 1997 until 2011, when he was laid off due to a station merger.
Not long after that, SiriusXM hired Ladd to host a live daily music show on the Deep Tracks channel, playing pretty much whatever he deemed in the “classic rock” realm.
“Even though I have been fighting for free-form all my life, it is more freedom than I have ever had before. I’m exploring a lot more music that is available to me. They put in eight tracks that would never see the light of day on terrestrial radio. I’m finding songs that I was unaware of,” he told the OC Register a year after starting his gig at SiriusXM.
Among his many interviews are rock legends like John Lennon, U2, Pink Floyd, the Eagles, Joni Mitchell…
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