Rock drummer who killed his own mother dead at 77

A rock drummer, famous for his association with iconic rock stars and infamous for a violent murder conviction, has died.

A rock drummer, who was infamous for murdering his mother, has died, aged 77.

Jim Gordon died on Monday of natural causes at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, while serving his prison sentence.

The drummer, who performed with the likes of Eric Clapton and George Harrison, had a lifelong battle with mental illness, The Sun reports.

Jim Gordon circa 1970. Picture: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

He is credited as a co-writer for Clapton’s 1970 hit Layla and was one of the main drummers for Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass – his first solo work after the break-up of the Beatles.

Gordon also performed in songs by the Beach Boys, Steely Dan, Carly Simon, Sonny and Cher, Nancy Sinatra, and the Byrds, among others.

However, his stellar career came to a screeching halt in June 1983 after Gordon brutally bludgeoned and stabbed his 72-year-old mother to death.

L-RL: Jim Gordon (far right), with Eric Clapton seated. Picture: Watford/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty

Following the murder, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia before he was sentenced to 16 years to life for the murder in 1984.

Despite being up for parole several times, Gordon was always denied, remaining incarcerated until his death.

Before his diagnosis, Gordon has a long history of mental illness and had at one point assaulted his then-girlfriend Rita Coolidge in 1970.

“Jim said very quietly, so only I could hear, ‘Can I talk to you for just a minute?’ He meant he wanted to talk alone. So we walked out of the room together,” wrote Bill Janovitz in a biography of the late musician, Leon Russell.

“And then he hit me so hard that I was lifted off the floor and slammed against the wall on the other side of the hallway … It came from nowhere.”

Gordon exhibited few signs of erratic behaviour to his fellow musicians, with Coolidge describing him as “an amazing guy, just really so charismatic”.

“[But] after everything happened, I started to recognise that look in his eye and knew that he was not playing with a full deck.”

This story originally appeared on The Sun and is republished here with permission

Originally published as Rock drummer who killed his own mother dead at 77