The Canadian rock and blues singer, Juno Award winner and longtime Canadian Idol judge died peacefully on October 2, leaving behind a catalogue that connected hard rock, blues and soul.
by Paul Cashmere
Sass Jordan, the Canadian rock singer whose career included the hit albums Tell Somebody and Racine, a duet with Joe Cocker and an early touring role for future Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, has died at 65. Her family announced that Jordan died peacefully on October 2, 2026, surrounded by those who loved her most.
The family described Jordan as “an inimitable force of nature” and “an irreplaceable being of light and joy”. A cause of death has not been disclosed.
Jordan’s influence extended well beyond her own recordings. During the early 1990s, a 22-year-old Taylor Hawkins played drums in her touring band, an experience that became an important early chapter in the career of the musician who would later join Foo Fighters.
“Sass taught me how to be in a rock and roll band and gave me my first rock and roll check,” Hawkins said.
The connection remained decades later. In 2015, Jordan joined Foo Fighters onstage in Toronto to perform the Faces’ “Stay With Me”. Before the performance, Dave Grohl told the audience, “If it weren’t for Sass Jordan, Taylor Hawkins wouldn’t be in Foo Fighters.”
Jordan was born Sarah Jordan in Birmingham, England, on December 23, 1960, to French literature professor Albert Jordan and former English ballerina Jean Lanceman. Her family moved to Montreal when she was three, and music soon became central to her life.
She began singing and playing guitar with friends in her early teens and was performing in Montreal clubs by 16. She later became vocalist and bassist with The Pinups before establishing herself as a session singer. Her early credits included Bündock’s 1986 album Mauve and work with The Box, while her songwriting was recorded by Michael Breen, whose 1987 Canadian hit “Rain” was written by Jordan.
Her solo breakthrough came with Tell Somebody in 1988. The title track reached number 11 in Canada and helped establish Jordan as a major new rock voice. She won the Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1989 and received further Juno nominations in the years that followed.
Jordan’s biggest commercial success came with Racine, released by MCA Records in 1992. The album produced “Make You a Believer”, “I Want to Believe”, “You Don’t Have to Remind Me” and “Goin’ Back Again”. “Make You a Believer” reached number 11 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, while Billboard named Jordan its Top Female Rock Artist of 1992.
The same period placed her alongside some of rock’s biggest touring acts. Jordan toured with Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Van Halen. She also recorded “Trust in Me” with Joe Cocker for The Bodyguard soundtrack after Kevin Costner heard her voice on the radio.
In 1994, Jordan released Rats, an album she later described as her favourite. Hawkins played drums on the record, which included “High Road Easy”, a number nine Canadian hit, and “Sun’s Gonna Rise”, which became Jordan’s first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100.
Her career subsequently moved between rock, television, theatre and blues. Jordan served as a judge on all six seasons of Canadian Idol from 2003 to 2008, becoming a familiar figure to a new generation of Canadian performers. She also played Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway production Love, Janis and appeared in The Vagina Monologues.
Her later recordings brought the blues influence that had always been present in her music further to the foreground. Rebel Moon Blues, released in 2020, reached number five on the Billboard Blues Albums chart. Bitches Blues followed in 2022 and reached number 15.
“There’s been an undercurrent of blues throughout my whole career,” Jordan said. “The music that I have mostly been drawn to has always had that gritty, rootsy vein running through it.”
Jordan’s final studio album was Bitches Blues, but her catalogue continued to open doors to her past. In 2023, Live in New York Ninety-Four was released, documenting a 1994 performance with Hawkins on drums.
She also revisited Racine for its 25th anniversary with 2017’s Racine Revisited, joined the David Bowie alumni ensemble A Bowie Celebration in 2019, and continued performing and recording music rooted in rock, blues and soul.
Jordan is survived by her husband, musician Derek Sharp, daughter Stella Jordan-Sharp, stepdaughter Brianne Sharp and brother Daniel Jordan. Her family has asked for privacy while thanking fans around the world for the love and music they shared with her across four decades.
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