It has emerged that iconic highlife musician, Fatai Olagunju aka Fatai Rolling Dollar, who passed away last week Wednesday, died an unfulfilled man!
According to an insider who spoke to Skoops, the late Rolling Dollar had dreams of celebrating his 75th year on stage in grand style and had been planning towards the actualization of the dream before the cold hands of death snatched him away after a protracted battle with lung cancer.
The source added that he was also working on plans to set up an ultra modern music academy at his home in Ikorodu, Lagos, which would have served as a platform to train young artistes in the art of mastering musical instruments.
"Baba had great plans for the music industry. He wanted to give back in a big way. He was already working on his 75th anniversary on stage.
It was going to be a great and outlandish event that would involve the crème de la crème of society. He had already contacted a lot of artistes who would perform but alas, death came calling.
"Being someone who came from a live band background, Rolling Dollar believed in good music and wanted to revive the live band culture by setting up a music academy that would encourage youngsters to learn to play instruments. In fact, he was going to dedicate his property at Ikorodu to the project.
But now that he is dead, the whole dream is gone," the source stressed. Meanwhile, highlife exponent, Pa Orlando Julius, in a telephone chat with Skoops revealed that Rolling Dollar had just finished work on a new album.
"We had been working for a long while and only recently completed recording of a brand new album for the legend. We had plans of releasing it in a grand way. In fact, we even discussed it shortly before he died. But now that he is dead, I intend to turn the album over to his family so that they could release it and generate some money for themselves," he said.
Orlando described Rolling Dollar as one of the greatest musicians to emerge from Nigeria adding that he would miss him for a long time to come.
Via: Sun News Online