Robin Gibb Public Memorial Planned, Singer’s Son Says He Died Of Kidney Failure, Not Cancer

Funeral plans for Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who passed away on May 20 at age 62, have been revealed. The singer will be laid to rest in June during a private service near his home in Thame, Oxfordshire, in England. Following that, Gibb will be honored with a public memorial at St Paul’s Cathedral in London in September.

Surprisingly, Robin Gibb’s son Robert-John told UK paper The Sunday Express that kidney failure had been the cause of his father’s death, not cancer, as has been widely reported.

“It wasn’t the cancer that killed my father; those reports are wrong,” Robert-John told the publication. “Dad had actually gone into remission and the cancer was completely unrecognisable, it was too small to detect. No scan could see it. He actually died of kidney failure.”

The 29-year-old continued: “He deteriorated to the point where it started to affect his kidneys as well. Basically my father died of kidney and liver failure. It was a really sudden downturn. My father always told us he wanted us to try everything, no matter how futile it may seem. He wanted to live. I was so disheartened. The last option was a blood transfusion which gave him another 12 hours.”

Before Robin’s death, he and son Robert-John completed classical composition Titanic Requiem, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

“The next thing after the funeral is to make sure the second performance of Titanic Requiem, which will be in Rome on June 23, goes smoothly,” the younger Gibb said. “It will be the first time it will be heard with accompanying holographics and there will be images of Dad. We’ve worked on the project for the past two years and it was so important to him, as it is to me.”

In addition to artists like Justin Timeberlake and Beyonce honoring Robin Gibb online over the past week, the singer’s brother and fellow Bee Gees bandmate Barry Gibb added a touching video tribute to YouTube.