Pete Seeger, a pioneer of contemporary folk music, passed away at the age of 94 on Monday, according to CNN. Some of his most popular songs are “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)” and “If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song).”
Seeger died of natural causes at New York Presbyterian Hospital, according to Kitama Cahill Jackson, his grandson.
“He lived at a time when so many things hadn’t been done yet, the idea of making music about something hadn’t really been done,” Jackson said. “And now people do it all the time.”
Seeger spoke to CNN in 2009 about the start of his career in music back in the 1930s.
“I come from a family of teachers, and I was looking for a job on a newspaper and not getting one,” he said. “I had an aunt who said, ‘Peter, I can get five dollars for you if you come and sing some of your songs in my class.’ Five dollars? In 1939, you would have to work all day or two days to make five dollars. It seemed like stealing.”
Seeger told CNN that he accepted his aunt’s offer.
“Pretty soon I was playing school after school, and I never did work on a newspaper,” he said “You don’t have to play at nightclubs, you don’t have to play on TV, just go from college to college to college, and the kids will sing along with you.”
Seeger had heart surgery to replace a valve in December. Jackson said the surgery went well and did not cause his death. Jackson said that his grandfather was in the hospital for six days leading up to his death.
“He was a second father to me, he was a friend, he was a best friend,” Jackson said. “He was just this wonderful, genuine person.”