Q Lazzarus. whose cult song “Goodbye Horses” was used in a memorable scene from the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, reportedly died on July 19. She was 61 and her death just came to public attention via a little-noticed newspaper obituary for the woman born Diane Luckey.
Q Lazzarus led the New York band Q Lazzarus And The Resurrection. She allegedly worked as a New York cab driver in the ’80s. That led her to a fateful fare from director Jonathan Demme. She reportedly played Demme her demo, he loved it, and he used the Q Lazzarus song “Candle Goes Away” in his 1986 film Something Wild.
Demme remained loyal to his cab-driving friend. He used the only commercially released single from the band, “Goodbye Horses,” in two movies, 1988’s Married To The Mob and then The Silence Of The Lambs
In The Silence Of The Lambs, “Goodbye Horses” is the music used when serial killer Buffalo Bill poses for himself in a mirror, tucks his appendage, and proclaims that he would have sex with himself.
Q Lazzarus also briefly appeared in Demme’s 1993 film Philadelphia. The scene features her cover of the Talking Heads’ “Heaven.”
That ended her public career, and Q Lazzarus vanished into civilian life, surfacing only for a brief interview in 2018. However, her“Goodbye Horses” song saw artists MGMT and Jon Hopkins issue covers.
Her obituary indicated that the showbiz spark still existed, even though Q/Luckey said in the 2018 interview that she had been driving a bus.
Her obit read, “At the time of her death, Diane was finishing work on a feature documentary about her life and music with filmmaker and friend, Eva Aridjis. The film will be released in 2023, along with an album of songs spanning her entire musical career.”
Luckey is survived by a husband and two children.
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