Gordon Lightfoot Is Not Dead, Despite Twitter Hoax

Rumors that iconic Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot died raced across Twitter earlier today, and soon found their way onto several Canwest newspaper websites. However, the stories -- the 'Vancouver Sun' quoted Lightfoot's longtime friend and fellow music legend Ronnie Hawkins saying, "He died last night, I've had a couple of phone calls already" -- were quickly taken down once word emerged that this was an Internet "prank."

Lightfoot's publicist Bernie Fielder assured the Globe&Mail that the 71-year-old singer was alive and well, and claimed that the death reports were based on "a Twitter coming out of Ottawa."

Lightfoot, who performed two weeks ago in Toronto with Tragically Hip's Gord Downie and begins a spring tour at month's end, personally contacted radio station 680 News to say, "I'm fine, I'm in great health," explain how he heard about his own death and joke that "all of a sudden my music is in heavy rotation!"

Twitter, meanwhile, quickly spread the not-dead news via tweets like that from former Barenaked Ladies singer Steven Page: "Neither Ronnie Hawkins nor Gordon Lightfoot are dead. But Abe Vigoda will always be dead to me."