The past couple months have been extremely tough on music fans across all genres. On December 3, Scott Weiland of the grunge rock mainstay Stone Temple Pilots died at the young age of 48. On December 28, the seemingly unsinkable Lemmy Kilmister, lead singer and bassist for Motörhead, passed away at age 70. On December 31, the princess of R&B Natalie Cole, daughter of Nat King Cole, passed away. On January 10, the legendary icon David Bowie passed at age 69. And on January 18, Glenn Frey, the co-lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and founding member of perhaps America’s greatest rock band the Eagles, died at age 67.

When someone in the public eye passes away, there is almost always an outpouring of grief and mourning from fans the world over. However at the same time, there is also the argument that these deaths shouldn’t be taken so hard considering we’ve never met these musicians. There are those that say it’s a waste of time being so upset about losing someone we never tangibly had in our lives. Personally, I believe musicians play a much bigger role in our lives than we immediately realize.

For me, there is rarely a time in the day that I don’t have music playing. Cheesy as it sounds, I’m never alone because there is always one of my favorite artists pouring their heart out through my speakers and relating to my own life in supernatural ways. The songs Glenn Frey wrote with the Eagles serve as the soundtrack for many memories I’ve shared with my family and past loves. Few songs are as quintessential to a sunny drive with the windows down as the song he co-wrote with Jackson Browne, “Take It Easy.” The hard-edged, raunchy sound of Lemmy’s growl and the savage sound he cultivated with Motörhead has almost always been careening around my sub-conscious before a basketball game in high school or when I’m lifting weights in the gym. The often unintelligible, yet undeniably catchy melodies Scott Weiland crafted with one of the most underrated bands of the 90s form a symbiotic relationship with some of my most cherished late nights with my college friends.

We have to realize that these musicians aren’t just transparent figures floating around in the public domain strictly for our entertainment. They’re real people whose self-expression and artistic value jettisoned them to a stage where they could delight, heal, and inspire millions of people. The fact that these musicians are just like us is shown not only through the mutual identification with certain feelings they write and sing about, but also by the demons that haunt us. I recently came across something from Tumblr about this subject and it really impacted me. It said something along the lines of it’s alright to mourn people we’ve never met, because what they did with their lives has helped to make all of us into the people we are, as well as the people we want to be. Scott Weiland, Lemmy Kilmister, Natalie Cole, David Bowie, and Glenn Frey all lived and died for the music. I think we can all agree that the absolute best way to honor them is turn the speakers all the way up for “Interstate Love Song,” “Ace of Spades,” “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love),” “Space Oddity,” and “Hotel California” and say cheers to these greats and the eternal power of their music.