Bulletin! Gordon Lightfoot Lives!

You can chalk up Lightfoot’s affirmation that he’s still with the living to news reports that began surfacing today claiming he had passed on to the Great Beyond.

“I’m fine, everything is good,” Lightfoot told Canadian all-news radio station CP24. “I don’t know where it comes from. It seems like a bit of a hoax or something.”

“I was quite surprised to hear (it) myself.”

According to the Canadian Press, premature reports of Lightfoot’s death began circulating earlier today when the Canwest news service posted an item claiming he had died.

Other media outlets quickly ran with the story. One account even contained a quote from singer Ronnie Hawkins confirming the artist’s demise.

But after learning the reports were bogus, Hawkins told reporters that he heard the rumor from his management, which in turn heard it from someone claming to be Lightfoot’s grandson.

“Oh what a dirty, sick joke that is, but I’m glad it was a sick joke and not the truth,” Hawkins said.

Click here for the Canadian Press report.