Raven Divito
Audio By Carbonatix
The world lost a true original on May 1, when spritely singer-songwriter Jill Sobule tragically passed away in a house fire while staying with friends in Woodbury, Minnesota, during a break in her current tour. She was 66.
The sad news came a day before the Denver native was scheduled to perform at Swallow Hill Music. Instead, the date became an informal gathering in her memory.
When Westword caught up with Sobule in mid-April, she couldn’t contain her excitement about the upcoming reunion. Even though she hadn’t lived in Colorado for over thirty years, she still called it home.
“Going back at first, you’d kind of feel weird. You’d have weird memories,” she shared. “Then the last couple years, when I come back to Denver, I’m like, ‘I want to move back. This is the best place on Earth.’
“Usually when I’m there, I just see a couple friends and sometimes I walk to my old neighborhood,” Sobule continued, adding she was keeping close tabs on her beloved Denver Nuggets playoff run at the time.
Longtime friend Doug Gertner, who helped Sobule book shows locally, recalls how the two of them would message back and forth during games. On May 3, the Nuggets played the Clippers in Game 7 of the first round. And for the first time, Gertner found himself watching without Sobule.
“It was so strange, there was a game the next day, and who was I supposed to text during the game?” he says. “We would text constantly during those games and watch them when we were in the same town.”
The Nuggets won. Gertner is wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a saint-like homage of Sobule, who’s wearing her signature Orange Crush Defense tee. It’s about 90 minutes before kickoff of the Broncos season when Gertner makes a prediction.
“It’ll be hard today, but I think the Broncos will win today, and Jill will be wearing orange up in heaven,” he says. “I’m going to miss texting her today, but I’m going to cheer extra hard.”
The Broncos outlasted the Tennessee Titans, 20-12.
Sobule was planning to bring her 2023 off-Broadway hit, Fuck 7th Grade, to town on Sunday, September 21, after the Broncos take on the Chargers, of course. Now, the Jewish Community Center is hosting Jillith Fair at the Elaine Wolf Theatre that night.
The celebration of her life and work will include performances from musician friends Tony Trischka, Lannie Garrett, Mollie O’Brien, Rich Moore, Carla Sciaky, Rabbi Joe Black, Hal Aqua and Liz Barnez. Organized in part by Gertner and Tim Campbell, Ron Bostwick of 105.5 The Colorado Sound is emceeing the evening, which benefits the It Was A Good Life Foundation.
Denver City Council member Paul Kashmann will read a proclamation from the city declaring Sunday, September 21, Jill Sobule Day in Denver as well.
“She’s an icon to a lot of us. She was her same sweet self, just normal, even with all the stuff she’s done, the accolades,” says O’Brien, who first met Sobule on the local open-mic circuit in the late 1980s. “She was like this little elven thing. She was so cute. She just bounced around and smiled and winked, like, ‘You know what I’m talking about.’ Everybody knew she looked like a popstar but was writing about very heavy-duty stuff.”
Sobule rose to fame in the mid-1990s, when her 1995 self-titled sophomore album charted behind the success of hit single “I Kissed a Girl,” the first openly gay anthem to nab a top Billboard spot.
“At every show I play, I get at least one or two people who seek me out to tell me how the song helped them when they were growing up,” Sobule wrote of the track’s unlikely triumphs. “My insidious gay agenda worked. The best part of having Katy Perry use my title was that a bunch of thirteen-year-olds accidentally bought my version online.”
Her wry sense of humor was always on display. Popular song “Supermodel” also landed on the soundtrack of the successful teen-comedy Clueless the same year that record was released. So Sobule considered herself a “two-hit wonder,” but over the years she cemented herself as a tour de force, always mixing her affinity for activism into her music, and never being afraid of saying what she felt needed to be said. “Soldiers of Christ,” a satirical jab at the Christian right-wing that she wrote in 1997, is just as relevant today as it was back then.
“Her stuff is still so potent and so timely, just about everything,” says O’Brien, who shared a rendition of the song alongside her husband Moore during Sobule’s family memorial.
“She just loved what she did, she loved performing and being with everybody. She was a real free spirit,” she continues. “I’m just sad that I didn’t see more of her, but I’m happy that I knew here, way back when and recently, and honored to be a part of it.”
And if there is one silver-lining to point surrounding Sobule’s untimely death it’s that the words, the music will live on, and that’s something worth celebrating.
“She was a bundle of joy and beloved everywhere,” Gertner says, adding there are plans for Jillith fairs in New York City and LA, Sobule’s other homes, among others.
“When we lost her the way we did, you see the outpouring of love, and you can get lost on the internet just following the grief,” he concludes, ‘so one of the ways I know I’m the channeling it, as one of many people who called her a friend is putting on a show. That’s what Jill would do.”
Jillith Fair, 6 p.m. Sunday, September 21, Jewish Community Center, 350 South Dahlia St. Tickets are $20.
