R.I.P. Johnny Cooper

Sad news, one of New Zealand’s rock’n’roll pioneers – Johnny Cooper (“The Maori Cowboy”) has died, aged 86.

Cooper retired in the 1990s and lived a reclusive life. Despite the early stages of Alzheimer’s he remained independent until the end, living along in a flat in Lower Hutt.

Cooper was born and raised in Hawke’s Bay and was seen