R.I.P. Funky Claude

Claude Nobs, the founder and general manager of the Montreux Jazz Festival name checked in Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water," died Thursday. He passed away after sustaining injuries during a cross-country skiing accident on Christmas Eve.

Nobs founded the festival in 1967 and was immortalized in "Smoke on the Water," in the line, “Funky Claude was running in and out, pulling kids out the ground.” The lyric described his efforts to save young concert fans from a fire that broke out during Frank Zappa‘s show in December 1971.