“Whatever God wants is fine by me ... I've had the very best life. I have tasted beauty.”
― Scatman John's last public words before his death.
John Paul Larkin (March 13, 1942 – December 3, 1999), known professionally as Scatman John, was an American musician and singer who created a fusion of scat singing and dance music, best known for his 1995 hits "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" and "Scatman's World".
Scatman John sold millions of recordings worldwide and was named Best New Artist in the Echo Awards in Germany. He was a recipient of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Annie Glenn Award for outstanding service to the stuttering community and National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame.
Born in El Monte, California, He suffered from a severe stutter by the time he learned to speak, which caused him to have an emotionally traumatic childhood. When he turned twelve in 1954, he began to learn the piano, and through records by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, among others, he was introduced to the art of scat singing.
He would go on to become a professional jazz pianist in the 1970s and 1980s, his first known performance on a studio album was in 1981 on the album Animal Sounds by Sam Phipps. In 1986, he released the self-titled album "John Larkin" on the Transition Label.
Unfortunately, however, Larkin died at his home in Los Angeles, California, on December 3, 1999, at the age of 57, from lung cancer. He had been diagnosed in late 1998.