BRUCE “LOOSE” CALDERWOOD Passes Away at Age 66

Yesterday, September 5th, it was announced that the previous co-vocalist and bassist of Flipper, Bruce “Loose” Calderwood had passed away at the age of 66. Originally announced by Who Cares Anyway – a collective that documents the post-punk movement in San Francisco, the historical collective posted a photo of Calderwood to their Instagram with the caption,

“After a prolonged struggle with life, Bruce “Loose” Calderwood of Flipper passed away from an apparent heart attack earlier this week at the age of 66.”

With the original announcement from a third-party, Flipper confirmed the death of Calderwood on Facebook with the simple caption, “RIP Bruce Loose Calderwood” alongside of a photo of him behind the microphone.

Flipper originated in 1979, with two of the founding members, Ted Falconi and Steve DePace, remaining to this day. Completed by new addition, Mike Watt, the line-up has seen quite a few changes over the years with vocalists and bassists, with Bruce Calderwood having the third-longest career with Flipper. Dedicating his time to Flipper for over 36 years, despite the band’s hiatuses, he appeared on all four of the band’s studio releases, periodically handing off bassist duties to John Dougherty and Krist Novoselic, consistently remaining their vocalist until a series of health incidents made it impossible for Calderwood to continue with Flipper in 2015 and he retired.

Calderwood had a variety of health issues throughout his later years in Flipper due a car accident that badly damaged his back, limiting his ability to perform, but continued to tour despite the injury before ending up in a second car accident in 2009. However, according to an interview in 2009, these back issues stemmed all the way back to high school when Calderwood injured his back for the first time during high school gymnastics, starting a ‘destabilization’ of his entire system. After his second serious car accident, Flipper remained relatively inactive until a slew of shows in which Calderwood was simply unable to perform, leading to David Yow stepping in as the band’s vocalist until 2022, before leaving and current vocalist and bassist Mike Watt stepped into the roles.

Flipper were cited as inspiration by numerous bands and artists, like Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic (who later played in Flipper for a brief stint from 2006 to 2009), the Melvins, and Jane’s Addiction for their out-of-the-box live shows, fearless individuality, and heavily distorted interpretation of punk.