The 18-year-old passed away on Monday morning at his home in Minnesota surrounded by his family and girlfriend, according to a post by his mother on Sobiech's CaringBridge page.
Zach touched the hearts of millions, including countless celebrities,
with the farewell song he wrote for family and friends after being
diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer.
Sobiech said he also needed to write it for himself. "I needed to
get that emotion out and they wanted something they could remember me
by," he said.
The lyrics read: "And we’ll go up, up, up. But I’ll
fly a little higher. We’ll go up in the clouds because the view is a
little nicer. Up here my dear. It won’t be long now, it won’t be long
now."
Clouds was uploaded to YouTube on December 5, 2012, and has since been viewed by nearly 3 million people.
This response saw celebrities come together to pay tribute to Zach with their own version of the song and a video.
Among
the stars featured in the video is Ashley Tisdale, Colbie Caillat,
Anna Faris, Passenger, Jason Mraz, Rachel Bilson, Chris Pratt, Jenna
Elfman, Jenna Fischer, The Lumineers, Rachel Bilson, Ed Helms and
Phillip Phillips.
The video was assembled by The Office star Rainn Wilson and actor Justin Baldoni, who directed a short documentary about Zach, called My Last Days, which airs on Wilson's SoulPancake YouTube channel.
The story of Zach Sobiech and his recording of his song Clouds is very sad but it's nice that Zach lived to see its popularity. As artists we always wonder if the work we do that goes unnoticed will be discovered and celebrated after our deaths. At least Zach knew the world had discovered him, it's just too bad he didn't have any time to enjoy his success.
The question becomes would Clouds have had any success at all if not for the tragic backstory that accompanied it? It might have been just another song recorded by a teenager and released on Youtube if Zach had remained healthy. In fact, if not for his illness he might never had felt the pressure to write, record or upload a song in the first place.
A while back a musician named Justin Vernon retreated to his family's vacation cabin in northwestern Wisconsin to recover from a bout of mononucleosis. While there he wrote and recorded an album under the band name Bon Iver. Bon Iver then went on to win the 2012 Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album for their album Bon Iver, Bon Iver. The name Bon Iver was derived from the French phrase bon hiver , meaning "good winter", taken from a greeting on the TV series Northern Exposure.
I've heard this story of Justin Vernon recording his hit record while ill a lot more than I've actually heard the music. It makes me wonder how much the record's success is because of the dramatic backstory rather than because of the music itself. It's already gotten to the point where a talented singer-songwriter-pianist-brunette named Stefani Germanotta had to change her name, hair color and persona to the cartoon characterish Lady Gaga to get her music the attention it deserved. Now have we gotten to the point where you have to be ill to get noticed like Justin Vernon. Or worse yet, die like Zach Sobiech?
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