Jenny Pagliaro of Roses & Cigarettes Dies at 35
Jenny Pagliaro, the lead singer and co-founder of Los Angeles-based country rock/Americana band Roses & Cigarettes, has died. She passed away Friday, March 26th from complications due to Stage IV Breast Cancer. She was 35-years-old. Pagliaro formed Roses & Cigarettes in 2013 with Angela Petrilli after meeting at an audition for a cover band, and they soon became close friends. Roses & Cigarettes just released a new album Echoes and Silence in February.
“With heavy hearts and great sorrow we announce the passing of our beloved Jenny on March 26, 2019,” her family said in a statement. “Jenny passed away peacefully at her home in Santa Monica, Calif., comforted by her devoted family and friends.”
The duo released their debut, self-titled album in 2015, and were scheduled to go on tour to promote the new record. It was at this time when Jenny Pagliaro was initially diagnosed with Stage II Beast Cancer. But after receiving treatment, the band chose to continue on, and eventually completed the tour. However Pagliaro’s condition continued to deteriorate, with the Cancer spreading to her bones, lungs, and liver. Nonetheless, Roses & Cigarettes recorded Echoes and Silence and continued to try and stay positive throughout the ordeal. Just as the new record was coming out, Pagliaro’s condition became terminal.
Despite the upbeat tempo and feel, the duo’s single from the record, “Fast As I Can” speaks to Pagliaro’s health struggle. “I got a date with the reaper,” the song goes. “The devil wants my heart in his hands. I’m gonna give him a few more reasons. Start living just as fast as I can.”
“When Jenny and I met at that first cover-band audition, I knew she was special,” says duo partner Angela Petrilli. “I felt it deep in my soul. I remember it like it was yesterday, her sonic energy, her laugh—and that voice. Man, that voice. I never heard anything like it. She was the Mick to my Keith. How thankful and humbled I am that our souls found one another to create the music we did together. Performing her songs brought her the purest form of joy I have ever witnessed another human project, and it brought me joy to watch her grow into the amazing human she was meant to be, on stage and off. I am beyond grateful to have shared this journey with her and I will miss her terribly. Those long car rides will never be the same without you singing along to the radio.”
A mass was held at the St. Monica Catholic Church on Sunday, March 31st in Jenny Pagliaro’s memory. A Go Fund Me page has been set up for her family.
April 3, 2019 @ 12:27 am
Never heard of them before, and from their surnames( Pagliaro and Petrilli) i suppose they share the same italian origin like i do (talking about diversity in country music…).
So sad to read this…R.I.P.
April 3, 2019 @ 6:16 am
Not familiar with her or Roses and Cigarettes but like the music clip. Will check out their music. Cancer sucks….lost my wife to breast cancer ten years ago. Hopefully one day there will be a cure. RIP…..
April 3, 2019 @ 7:21 am
A terrible loss. RIP.
April 3, 2019 @ 7:26 am
F-cancer. I am glad she was able to see the release of that last album and that her voice will live on through her music. RIP Miss Pagliaro and my condolences to her family, friends, and fans.
April 4, 2019 @ 9:21 am
Those are some powerful lyrics. Very sad to lose such a promising point of light in this often gloomy cosmos.
If I were king I would have thrown moonshot level funding at healthcare years ago, with an efficiency incentive and targeted funding for diseases–especially cancer. If we had started something like that the day that Apollo was cancelled I have to think we would have beat the fuck out of most, if not all, diseases.
April 5, 2019 @ 6:36 pm
Al you gotta’ do is eat right (organic, purify your water), move out of any corridors where nuclear waste is shipped from Hanford to the new Texas disposal sight, and any of decommissioning CA nuke sights, and also quarntine yourself by not buying multiple chemical cleaning products when some castile soap or Sal Suds will work. Stop carrying your mobile in your pocket, and stop being a trendy laughing at me in my Southern poverty because I don’t go to your trendy little wine bars and laugh and mix it up like an insta whore. Don’t eat out if the restaurants don’t use purified water, wash your hands after touching the mail because they find weedkiller on all parcels, and in general start being more aware of your surroundings and not just posing for your next selfie.