When we spoke with Jon Aaron, better known as Jonny Bones, back in March, The Still Spirits had just released their first full-length in a decade. On Thursday morning, Steve Pearson of Kinda Cool Records got in touch with some very sad news. Jonny passed away on the night of Friday, August 21.
Jonny played guitar and sang with The Still Spirits and was also part of Maple Ridge ska-punk band Bone Daddies. He had been around the Vancouver punk community for more than two decades. He also hosted Rad Radio on CJSF and ran Hollywood Horrorshow screenings in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.
Last year, Jonny went public with an extremely rare late stage 4 cancer that began around his left vocal cord and later spread to other parts of his body. At one point he lost his voice completely. Treatment eventually allowed him to speak again, and he returned to the stage while The Still Spirits were finishing “Small Time Crime“.
We talked to Jonny in March about that record and the long, messy route towards getting it finished. The band had recorded the instruments years earlier, but the album was still incomplete when he was diagnosed. Blake McKay at Adanac Studios stepped in to help finish the sessions, Greg Mindorff mastered the record, and Jonny eventually played its release show on February 28. “Small Time Crime” came out through Kinda Cool Records and Jonny Bones Forever.
Jonny Bones Forever was set up by Steve and other people around the Vancouver scene after Jonny’s diagnosis. The non-profit supports music, art, culture, community and all-ages access to them, the things Jonny himself wanted it to carry on supporting after he was gone. Earlier this year it also released “To My Bones”, a tribute record built from songs Jonny had written over the years.
Reading that conversation again today, the best place to leave it is probably with Jonny himself. Talking about the people who had rallied around him after his diagnosis, he told us:
“It’s incredibly humbling to see so many folks that I consider friends rally together. It’s wild to learn how much of an impact I’ve apparently had on people, just by being me and treating those around me like I expect everyone should be treated. Just goes to show that a little kindness in the world can go a long way.”
Read our March conversation with Jonny Bones and The Still Spirits.
