Montreal rocker Sass Jordan dead at 63

Montreal music fans were shocked to learn that singer-songwriter Sass Jordan has died at the age of 63.

About a month ago, venues were announcing that dates in the artist’s current tour were being cancelled due to a health issue. But at around 8 p.m. Saturday night, Oct. 3, a post appeared on Jordan’s Facebook page saying “surrounded by her loving family, Sass Jordan peacefully crossed over to the other side.”

Sarah “Sass” Jordan was born in Birmingham, England. Her father, a French literature professor, took on a post at Concordia University and moved the family to Montreal when Jordan was 3 years old.

The Juno Award-winner was playing music in public from the age of 16. Before launching her successful solo career, Jordan sang with such local acts as Bündock and The Box.

Her debut album, Tell Somebody, came out in 1988, featuring the song "So Hard" and the title track, "Tell Somebody". She made her way to Los Angeles two years later. Her second album, Racine, came out in 1992, with the hits "Make You a Believer" and "Goin’ Back Again", a love letter to her hometown. Her third album, Rats, followed in 1994. She released seven more records over the next decade.

Jordan was a judge on Canadian Idol from 2003-2008. She had also famously toured with the late Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters drummer who died in 2022. “Sass taught me how to be in a rock and roll band,” Hawkins had once said of Jordan, “and gave me my first rock and roll cheque.”

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl would add that “if it weren’t for Sass Jordan, Taylor Hawkins wouldn’t be in the Foo Fighters.”

Jordan is survived by her husband, musician Derek Sharp, and a daughter.