Robin Gibb's Death Latest Family Heartbreak - ABC News
Robin Gibb's Death Latest Family Heartbreak
ABCNEWS.com
Robin Gibb was feeling better than he had in more than 10 years.
One of the founding members of the "Bee Gees," along with his brothers Barry and Maurice, the 62-year-old had been working on his first classical concert, "The Titanic Requiem," with his son Robin-John to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster.
Preparing for the concert, he said, distracted him from his "illness to such a degree that I truly believed it might have saved my life," according to the British newspaper, The Sun. In an interview with BBC radio in early February he proclaimed that he had made a "spectacular recovery" from cancer.
But when the Titanic concert debuted in London in March, Robin Gibb wasn't there. He had another setback and fell into a coma after undergoing intestinal surgery. Gibb rallied once again, coming out of the coma to the relief of his family and fans. On May 20 his family announced"with great sadness that that Robin passed away Sunday following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery. The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time."
After revealing his battle with cancer in October 2010, the disco icon had chemotherapy and underwent surgery to treat a twisted bowel, a congenital condition that killed his twin brother and fellow Bee Gee, Maurice, in 2003. In January of this year Robin's spokesman announced that doctors had found a growth in his colon but the singer was responding well to treatment despite his shockingly thin appearance.
Gibb's wife Dwina, his children and his 65-year old-brother, Barry Gibb, were at his bedside. His mother, 91- year-old Barbara Gibb has now lost her third son. Andy Gibb, the youngest of the four Gibb boys, died unexpectedly at age 30.
"I sometimes wonder if all the tragedies my family has suffered, like Andy and Maurice dying so young and everything that's happened to me recently, is kind of a karmic price we are paying for all the fame and fortune we've had," Robin told the The Sun in March of this year.
The Bee Gees were one of most successful pop groups of all time, selling more than 200 million albums. "Saturday Night Fever" reigned as the top-selling album in history until Michael Jackson's "Thriller" topped it in the 1980's.
Robin was the lead singer of the original trio but Barry Gibb's signature falsetto sound on songs like "Nights on Broadway" dominated the group during their glory days. The group had exceptional success in the late 1960's and the 1970's, becoming a disco sensation with blockbuster hits "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever."
The Brother's Gibb, as they were sometimes called, began to sing in harmonization and write songs together as young boys in England. But over their 50-year career they have seen their share of solo adventures, career slumps, suffered through the disco backlash, been the punch line of jokes and endured personal loss.
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