Only takes a broken heart: the tragic ending of Mountain’s Felix Pappalardi
The era that Felix Pappalardi was born into felt like the closest rock and roll has come to utopia. As The Vietnam War raged on, the counterculture scene going on in America was everything that a hippie could ask for, with flowers being worn in people’s hair and artists wanting to do nothing more than to tune in and drop out. Pappalardi may have helped paint the picture of a drug-fuelled paradise, but the final hours of his life were much more violent than anyone could have imagined.
For most of his career, Pappalardi served as one of the many musicians in the group Mountain. Although the hard rockers have become a staple of rock history thanks to songs like ‘Mississippi Queen’, their appearance at Woodstock cemented them as one of the bands at ground zero during the Summer of Love.
Before Mountain had even begun, Pappalardi had already gotten to work with one of the biggest psychedelic bands in the business, helping put together Cream records and inspiring songs like ‘White Room’. That rock and roll lifestyle does a number on everyone, but things got a lot uglier when balancing his professional life with what was happening back home.
After being happily married to his wife Gail for years, some rough patches began creating trouble in paradise. The rockstar life ended up showing up at home more than a few times, leading to Pappalardi falling in love with Valerie Merians, who had owned a club when the band went up to Woodstock.
Instead of settling their differences with marriage counselling, one chaotic argument in 1983 led to Pappalardi dying after being fatally shot by Gail. As Gail’s defence attorney stated to Louder: “The shooting took place in a small bedroom. It was a gorgeous spot, a high-rise building on the East River… but the apartments tend to be quite small.”
Even though Gail admitted that she had shot her husband, she wasn’t about to fess up to murdering him intentionally. They may have had their problems, sure, but the whole reason that she accidentally shot him was because he was giving her a lesson on how to use a gun when it accidentally went off.
Looking at the situation, it seems like Gail was not in the best frame of mind when the gun was in her hand. They had done a drug test shortly after the arrest, and the amount of drugs in her body at least pointed to her not being in the best state to hold a gun.
Other accounts have had their doubts, though, especially considering the couple had been arguing earlier in the day and that Pappalardi was in his underwear when he was shot. No matter how many times people give lessons on gun safety, there’s hardly a chance that they would try to explain the mechanics of a firearm almost nude.
This wasn’t even the first time Gail had pointed a gun at one of the musicians, with drummer Corky Laing explaining that she had once threatened to put a bullet in his wife’s head when she accused her of having an affair with Pappalardi. Ultimately, the jury ruled in her favour that the whole thing was a tragic accident, after which Gail was released in 1985 and became a recluse for the rest of her days. Pappalardi may have been instrumental in making the psychedelic movement happen, but his death is proof that it only takes a broken heart and a few bad decisions for things to turn tragic.