I got the horrible news yesterday that my friend Jill Sobule had died. You may recognize her name: She was a singer/songwriter who first popped into the public eye with her song “I Kissed a Girl” and continued producing lively, lovely music for decades. She was a person for whom the word “delightful” was invented. She was goofy, smart, playful, humble, generous. She wrote the theme song for my podcast “Crybabies” and it was just brilliant. I don’t even remember if my cohost Sarah Thyre and I paid her for it! If we did, it was much less than she could have commanded; she did things like that for friends. She was about to perform in Denver when she died in a house fire, a terrible way to die, which fills me with such sadness that I can’t shake it off. She had a darling, impish smile and a tender heart. Life can be so unfair. Goodbye, sweet Jill.
XSusan
I came across Jill's 1990 debut when I was reviewing LPs for alt-weeklies, and we've been big fans ever since. We saw her perform any number of times over the years, most recently in her F*CK 7TH GRADE musical. Never occurred to us that there might be a time when we didn't have a Jill show on our calendar. Just devastating.
I compiled a quick Spotify playlist for anyone who hasn't heard her beyond "I Kissed a Girl": https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1AIuQpeJDVPbez4786FO1C?si=eb10c609d4ad4734
What heartbreaking news. And I'm so sorry for your loss.