Leonard Cohen’s manager, Robert B. Kory, has revealed more of the details surrounding the singer’s death.
“Leonard Cohen died during his sleep following a fall in the middle of the night on Nov. 7,” he says in a statement. “The death was sudden, unexpected and peaceful.”
It had earlier been reported by the New York Times that Cohen had been battling cancer, and was experiencing chronic pains in his back.
Meanwhile, songwriter and composer, Patrick Leonard, confirms that Cohen and him had been working on a number of projects.
“We were in the middle of a bunch of stuff,” Leonard tells Entertainment Weekly. “We were going to try to make an R&B record—for real. There’s four, five, six songs that are sitting there, and they’re good. Not R. Kelly, more old-school Otis - just those sorts of simple grooves and great bass lines.
“He felt the window getting narrower,” Leonard adds. “He wanted to use the time as productively as he could to finish the work that he was so good at and so devoted to.”
It’s also understood that Cohen was working on a new collection of poetry.
Leonard was buried several days prior to news of his death being made public, with his son Adam writing: “My sister and I just buried my father in Montreal. With only immediate family and a few lifelong friends present, he was lowered into the ground in an unadorned pine box, next to his mother and father. Exactly as he’d asked. As I write this I’m thinking of my father’s unique blend of self-deprecation and dignity, his approachable elegance, his charisma without audacity, his old-world gentlemanliness and the hand-forged tower of his work. There’s so much I wish I could thank him for, just one last time. I’d thank him for the comfort he always provided, for the wisdom he dispensed, for the marathon conversations, for his dazzling wit and humour. I’d thank him for giving me, and teaching me to love Montreal and Greece. And I’d thank him for music; first for his music which seduced me as a boy, then for his encouragement of my own music, and finally for the privilege of being able to make music with him. Thank you for your kind messages, for the outpouring of sympathy and for your love of my father.”