2 hours ago
3
Justin Cary, bassist for the Texan alt-pop band Sixpence None The Richer, has passed away. Cary suffered a stroke last week. Earlier this week, bandmate Leigh Nash shared the news on Instagram, as well as a link to a GoFundMe page to raise money for Cary and his wife Linda. Yesterday, Linda announced that Cary had passed away peacefully that morning. Cary was 50.
Leigh Nash and Matt Slocum founded Sixpence None The Richer as a Christian rock duo in the early '90s, and they released two independent albums, 1994's The Fatherless And The Widow and 1995's This Beautiful Mess, before Justin Cary joined the band. Cary joined up, replacing original bassist JJ Plasencio, just before the release of Sixpence None The Richer's self-titled 1997 album.
"Kiss Me," a dizzy and dreamy track from that album, took off after it appeared on the soundtrack of the 1999 movie She's All That. It reached #2 on the Hot 100 and went on to become a pop standard.That song is still everywhere. I've seen Sabrina Carpenter cover it, and I've seen the defunct dream-pop band Wildhoney do it at a hardcore fest. It's a stroke of romantic delight, and it'll live on forever.
Sixpence None The Richer's self-titled album went platinum on the strength of "Kiss Me," and the band had a few more minor hits, including covers of the La's' "There She Goes" and Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over." Their follow-up LP Divine Discomfort got trapped in label limbo and didn't come out until 2002, and they broke up in 2004. Justin Cary didn't take part in the reunited versions of Sixpence None The Richer that released a couple of later albums, but he did rejoin when the classic lineup got back together to tour and release the 2024 EP Rosemary Hill.
English (US) · 