‘Spirit in the Sky’ singer Greenbaum critically hurt in crash
Jewish singer-songwriter, 72, collides with motorcyclist in northern California
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SANTA ROSA, California — The singer-songwriter behind the 1969 rock hit “Spirit in the Sky” was hospitalized on Sunday after being critically injured in a Northern California car accident that killed a motorcyclist.
Norman Greenbaum, 72, a longtime resident of Santa Rosa, was the passenger of a Subaru Outback that collided with a motorcycle at a street intersection near the city on Saturday, the California Highway Patrol said.
The motorcycle driver, Ihab Usama Halaweh, 20, of Santa Rosa, died at the scene; his passenger and Greenbaum were taken to the hospital with critical injuries.
“Spirit in the Sky,” which became a hit in 1970, has frequently been used in commercials and movies.
Despite the overt Christian themes in his song, including a verse about placing trust in Jesus, Greenbaum was raised an observant Jew.
“My parents weren’t Hasidic, but they were almost Orthodox,” he told the New York Times in 2006.
A spokeswoman for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, Vanessa DeGier, declined to release Greenbaum’s condition on Sunday, saying that his family requested privacy.
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reported that a nursing supervisor at the hospital said he remained in critical condition.
The newspaper said the Subaru driver was not injured, and that investigators do not believe that alcohol or drugs were factors in the accident.
“There’s no stop (at the intersection), but the Subaru driver was supposed to yield to oncoming traffic and they didn’t,” CHP Officer Matt Pinheiro said.
The Times of Israel Community.