It is with profound sorrow that the family of Sass Jordan announces that the singer, songwriter, Juno Award winner and longtime Canadian Idol judge died peacefully on October 2nd, 2026, surrounded by those who loved her most. She was 65.
Her family remembers her as “an inimitable force of nature” and “an irreplaceable being of light and joy,” a woman whose generosity and fire touched everyone who shared a stage, a studio or a kitchen table with her. Over four decades, she gave Canadian rock one of its most recognizable voices, carved out space for women in a genre long dominated by men, and opened doors for the young musicians who came through her band.
Born Sarah Jordan on December 23rd , 1960, in Birmingham, England, she was the daughter of French literature professor Albert Jordan and former English ballerina Jean Lanceman. At three, she moved with her family from France to Montreal, where her father had taken a professorship at Concordia University. Classical music filled the household, which made hearing The Band‘s ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down‘ on the radio feel like a revelation. Seeing David Bowie on his Diamond Dogs Tour, her very first concert, settled the question of what she would do with her life.
As a young teen she sang and played guitar with friends in Westmount Park, and by 16 she was fronting bands in downtown Montreal clubs, later becoming singer and bassist for local favourites The Pinups. Around 1981, a young manager named Simon Fuller, stranded in Montreal after one of his touring acts ran out of money, spent two weeks living in her basement. Their paths would cross again two decades later.
She drew inspiration from a remarkably wide circle, from Rod Stewart, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Tears for Fears and Anthrax to Al Green, Bonnie Raitt, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin. She especially studied the great male rock vocalists, among them Steven Tyler, Robert Palmer, Paul Rodgers, Lou Gramm, Robin Zander and Lowell George of Little Feat, and believed that “it is rhythm that makes a great singer.”
Her recording career began in 1986 as co-lead vocalist on ‘Come On (Baby Tonight)‘ from Bündock‘s album ‘Mauve‘. She quickly became a sought-after session singer in Montreal, most notably on The Box‘s breakthrough ‘L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me…)‘, and appeared in the band’s video for ‘Closer Together‘. Her songwriting found an audience too, as Michael Breen took her composition ‘Rain‘ onto the Canadian charts in 1987.
Atlantic Records released her solo debut, ‘Tell Somebody‘, in 1988, and the title track rose to #11 in Canada. “They played the ‘Tell Somebody‘ video on Much Music a lot,” she recalled. “I remember going in two weeks from relative obscurity to being recognized as the girl in the video.” The album also yielded ‘Double Trouble‘, ‘Stranger Than Paradise‘ and ‘So Hard‘, while her version of the 1965 R&B classic ‘Rescue Me‘, recorded for the ‘American Boyfriends’ soundtrack, charted alongside them. She won the 1989 Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist and went on to Best Female Vocalist nominations in 1990, 1993 and 1995.
After moving to Los Angeles in January 1990, she recorded ‘Racine‘, released by MCA Records on March 31st, 1992. It became the defining album of her career, selling an estimated 450,000 copies worldwide and 100,000 in Canada on the strength of ‘Make You a Believer‘, ‘I Want to Believe‘, ‘You Don’t Have to Remind Me‘ and ‘Goin’ Back Again‘, with ‘Who Do You Think You Are‘ following in 1993. ‘Make You a Believer‘ climbed to #11 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, and Billboard named her its top female rock artist of 1992. That same year, after Kevin Costner heard her voice on his car radio, she recorded the duet ‘Trust in Me‘ with Joe Cocker for ‘The Bodyguard‘, a soundtrack that sold more than 45 million copies. She toured alongside Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Van Halen.
Behind the kit in her touring band was a 22-year-old Taylor Hawkins, who would go on to join Foo Fighters. “Sass taught me how to be in a rock and roll band and gave me my first rock and roll check,” he said. In 1994 she released ‘Rats‘, the album she always called her favourite. It delivered ‘High Road Easy‘, a #9 hit in Canada, plus ‘I’m Not‘ and ‘Sun’s Gonna Rise‘, which reached #7 at home and earned her a first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100.
With Aquarius Records she released ‘Present‘ in 1997, featuring ‘Do What I Can‘ and the 1998 hit ‘Desire‘, followed by ‘Hot Gossip‘ in 2000. In 2001 she performed at the Grey Cup halftime show with Michel Pagliaro and starred as Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway production ‘Love, Janis‘. She also appeared in the Toronto and Winnipeg productions of ‘The Vagina Monologues‘ and guest starred on NBC’s Sisters.
In 2003 she joined Canadian Idol as a judge, the only woman on the panel, and remained there for all six seasons, reuniting with series creator Simon Fuller 20 years after those Montreal basement days. Carly Rae Jepsen and Melissa O’Neil were among her favourite contestants. The experience drew her back into the studio for 2006’s ‘Get What You Give‘, produced by Colin Linden in Nashville with guests including Garry Tallent of Bruce Springsteen‘s E Street Band, drummers Ken Coomer and Bryan Owings, guitarist Audley Freed of The Black Crowes and keyboardist Richard Bell of The Band.
Her husband, musician Derek Sharp, produced 2009’s ‘From Dusk ’til Dawn‘, recorded in three weeks. “I was thinking about how human beings seem to be more sensitive and worried about things from sunset to sunrise,” she explained. “When you’re alone is when the fear of death really hits you, and I was trying to write songs that were related to the fears of the middle of the night.” In 2011 she reconnected with ‘Rats‘ collaborator Brian Tichy in S.U.N. for ‘Something Unto Nothing‘, alongside Whitesnake‘s Michael Devin and Tommy Stewart, beginning with the first song they wrote together, ‘Burned‘.
From 2012 to 2016 she served as honorary colonel of 417 Combat Support Squadron. On July 9h, 2015, she joined Foo Fighters onstage in Toronto for the Faces‘ ‘Stay With Me‘, sharing the moment with Hawkins as Dave Grohl told the crowd, “If it weren’t for Sass Jordan, Taylor Hawkins wouldn’t be in Foo Fighters.”
She celebrated her breakthrough’s 25th anniversary with 2017’s ‘Racine Revisited‘, cut live off the floor with an all-star cast in a vintage 1970s spirit, and called it “the most fun I’ve had in a while making a record.” In 2019 she toured the world with Mike Garson‘s A Bowie Celebration: The David Bowie Alumni Tour, performing with the musicians of her childhood hero and describing it as “like playing a love letter to his memory every night!” In 2020, ‘Rats‘ marked its own 25th anniversary with a coloured vinyl reissue.
Her blues chapter brought some of the finest reviews of her life. ‘Rebel Moon Blues‘, released on Stony Plain Records in 2020, debuted at #5 on Billboard’s Blues Albums chart and included ‘The Key‘, an original she wrote with Derek in a single hour. “When it’s meant to happen, it really just flows out,” she said. On June 3rd, 2022, she released ‘Bitches Blues‘, her 10th and final studio album, an eight-track meditation on the pandemic and the uneasy world that followed, featuring the originals ‘Change Is Coming‘, ‘Still the World Goes Round‘ and ‘Still Alive and Well‘. Her band, the Champagne Hookers, featured guitarists Chris Caddell and Jimmy Reid, drummer Cass Pereira, keyboardist Jesse O’Brien and Steve Marriner on bass and harmonica. The album reached #15 on Billboard’s Blues Albums chart.
“There’s been an undercurrent of blues throughout my whole career, the music that I have mostly been drawn to has always had that gritty, rootsy vein running through it, and that’s why I’m enjoying making these records so much,” she said at the time.
On April 28th, 2023, she released ‘Live in New York Ninety-Four‘, a concert recording featuring Taylor Hawkins on drums and opening with a live ‘High Road Easy‘.
Her love of celebration also found its way into Rebel Moon Whiskey, a blended Canadian whisky made with Dixon Distilleries, and Kick Ass Sass Wine from Vineland Estates Winery in the Niagara Region.
“If you love music and you’ve been around as long as I have, you pretty much do what you got to do,” she once said. “But I love music. I am a huge, gigantic fan.” Sass Jordan leaves a catalogue that shaped Canadian rock through the late ’80s and ’90s, a blues renaissance in which her voice grew richer with each record, and a generation of artists, from Idol hopefuls to a future Foo Fighter, who learned from her what it means to give a song everything.
She is survived by her husband, Derek Sharp, daughter Stella Jordan-Sharp (Daniel Yepes), stepdaughter Brianne Sharp, brother Daniel Jordan (Isabelle Courville).
The family asks for privacy as they grieve, and thanks fans around the world for the love and music they shared with Sass across her remarkable life.
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