Brad Fischetti, the last living member of the band LFO, took to social media to mourn the loss of his bandmate, Devin Lima.
“Harold ‘Devin’ Lima passed away early this morning after a valiant battle with cancer,” the 43-year-old said in the emotional YouTube video Wednesday. “He will be greatly missed by many.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
“For me, he was a brother. To his six kids, he was a father. To their mother, a wonderful partner,” Fischetti continued. “He was an extraordinary talent and a beautiful man.”
“I will miss him and I will honor him and I know right now he stands in the presence of greatness in the midst of heaven talking to Jesus, saying, ‘Hey, watch out for my friends,’” he concluded. “That’s where I find peace.”
In the video, Fischetti wears an LFO shirt and stands next to two pairs of Adidas sneakers that presumably belong to Lima and their other late bandmate, Rich Cronin, who died in 2010 of cancer.
“On behalf of the LFO family, thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love from friends, family, fans, media, and those in the music industry,” Fischetti wrote in the description of the video. “A few days before he passed away he said to me, ‘Bro, when it’s over, just tell them I disappeared.’ My friends – Harold ‘Devin’ Lima has disappeared.”
Lima died Wednesday just more than a year after he underwent surgery to remove a football-size tumor caused by stage four adrenal cancer. He was 41. At that time, Fischetti told fans on YouTube that the “surgery was great. The tumor was the size of a football. But [the surgery] was smooth, they didn’t have to take out some of the organs they thought they would.”
Although Lima had told fans that it didn’t “feel like it’s some kind of cancer,” about 10 days after the surgery, Fischetti said Lima had been diagnosed with “primary adrenal cancer, meaning it started in the adrenal gland, which is really rare.”
“Devin asked me to give you this update without him because, frankly, he’s not feeling very well. But, he asked me to send you his love and gratitude for all the love and prayers you’ve sent his way,” Fischetti said at the time. “He’s had a tough recovery. He had a few really difficult days in the hospital, but thankfully, he’s home now, resting and healing.”
“I wish we had better news to share. It’s devastating news but at the same time, there’s nobody I know stronger than Devin Lima. No one has a stronger body, mind or soul,” he continued. “If anybody can defeat this, it’s Devin. I know with your prayers and your thoughts and your positive energy coming down his way, there’s no doubt that he will beat it.”
Lima’s death comes eight years after fellow bandmate Rich Cronin died from leukemia. He was 36. Though Lima and Fischetti had to help Cronin get dressed before shows and sometimes even carry him onstage, they told Entertainment Weekly it was an honor to do so.
“He was so happy,” Fischetti said in 2010. “We really became soulmates. Devin and I both realized how much we loved him, despite the differences we had in the past.”
Cronin and Fischetti founded LFO, which stands for Late Funky Ones, in 1995 with former member Brian Gillis. Gillis left the band before Lima joined in 1999, which is the year their song “Summer Girls” reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard Single Sales. The band is also known for their hits “Girl on TV” and “Every Other Time.”
Photo credit: Sam Levi / Contributor / Getty
