Back in 1991, most of the world was completely obsessed with the Jonathan Demme-directed film, The Silence Of The Lambs. Equal parts unsettling and intriguing, many fans would agree that one of the film’s most iconic scenes consisted of serial killer Buffalo Bill (portrayed by Ted Levine) as he spoke to himself in the mirror as Q Lazzarus’ ‘Goodbye Horses’ played in the background.
Now, after more than 20 years of mystery, the singer behind that eerie piece of music has resurfaced, putting an end to one of the most baffling mysteries of recent times.
Late last year, we posted a feature on some of the most intriguing mysteries in the world of music. One of these mysteries had to do with the current whereabouts of US musician Q Lazzarus, who seemed to have dropped off the fact of the Earth after 1996.
The generally-accepted facts about the musician involved the fact that she was known only by her given names, Quiana Diana, and that she was born in 1965. While working as a taxi driver in New York and playing music with her band The Resurrection, Quiana picked up director Jonathan Demme, who listened to a demo of her music, and wanted to feature it in his upcoming film Married To The Mob.
After the track experienced a boost of fame thanks to its use in Demme’s The Silence Of The Lambs, Quiana returned to The Resurrection, but after their breakup in 1996, she appeared to have disappeared from the public eye. Some Internet sleuths surmised that she was a drug addict or a runaway, while others discovered that she had unclaimed royalties, leading credence to the theory floated by William Garvey of The Resurrection that Q Lazzarus had passed away.
However in a rare turn, it seems that this case might actually have a happy ending after all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOG-JGtdAGI
As Stereogum points out, US musician Kelsey Zimmerman recently took to Facebook to reveal how she happened to receive a correspondence from Q Lazzarus, informing her that she is in fact alive and well.
Zimmerman explained how during a search for more information about the mysterious musician, she Tweeted out a message about her ongoing search, writing “time to do my monthly google of whether anyone has heard from Q Lazzarus yet or not.” However, after getting a response from an account she initially thought was fake, Zimmerman soon realised she was speaking to the mysterious muso in question.
After asking some follow-up questions in regards to her whereabouts, the person who was ostensibly Q Lazzarus wrote back with the following.
“Hi, sorry to bother you. I just wanted people to know I am still alive, I have no interest in singing anymore. I am a bus driver in Staten Island (I have been for YEARS), I see hundreds of passengers everyday so I am hardly hiding (or dead!), I have given Thomas Gorton (Dazed) my fone number and address just to confirm I am ‘real’, sorry if this is a boring end to the story, I am going to come off twitter soon as I find it odd, please take note of this message incase anyone else is interested. THANK YOU”
While Kelsey Zimmerman noted that she was rather surprised by this turn of events, she explained that she was still skeptical, and soon found herself doing a bit of digging.
“Now, the bus driver part made sense to me because she was a cab driver when she was discovered–a logical step in the next direction, right? I still wasn’t entirely convinced,” Zimmerman explained. “But the woman posted a selfie before deleting the account, of which I have a screen shot and it is indeed a woman resembling the rather mysterious looking (and notably rare) promo shots of Q from the late 80s.”
“I decided to google ‘Diane Luckey’ as that was the name the woman used as her Twitter display name, and AS IT FUCKING TURNS OUT there is a woman named Diane Luckey who filed a lawsuit against a Staten Island bus company in 2015 for not having a single woman driver. This was not widely reported on as lawsuits are totally common and boring, but I found the info on a few smaller Jewish news sites, as the bus company was Hasidic-owned.”
“So for this woman to have faked this all, she would have had to find a selfie of a woman closely resembling a mysterious one-hit wonder from the late 80s who has aged 30 years, found an obscure woman’s name who happens to drive buses in Staten Island and is only searchable by a minor lawsuit that happened in 2015, pretended to be that woman, made a twitter account for exactly one day, keyword searched herself and responded to three or four people trying to contact anyone who is interested and thought she was dead, then deleted the account to maintain anonymity while also wanting people to know she’s very much alive.”
“I’m basically 100% sure the person who contacted me in in fact Q Lazzarus, and it’s blowing my fucking mind,” Zimmerman concluded. “‘Goodbye Horses’ continues to be one of my favorite songs of all time, and if this is all true, I’m so so happy to know someone I admire so much is living a happy, simple life away from the lechery of the music industry by choice.”
While it’s a shame to hear that Q Lazzarus decided to quit the world of music all those years ago, despite a massive amount of talent, armchair-sleuths everywhere are undoubtedly relieved to hear a resolution (and a happy one at that) to this mystery after so many years of confusion and wonder.
Now, if we could just work on finding that mysterious Tool song, that would be great.
Check out Q Lazzarus’ ‘Goodbye Horses’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKFaGDrOfrI
