- Music
- 08 Feb 17
Hollywood actor Stephen has revealed how he feels “broken inside” since the tragic death of his brother, Andrew, who passed away at the relatively young age of 40-years-old back in December 2016
The cause of death is as yet unknown. “My brother got to enjoy his success but he was robbed of so many years and I miss him so much... I'm broken inside,” Stephen said.
Andrew was a Nashville songwriter who penned Blake Shelton’s number one country hit singles ‘Neon Light’ and ‘My Eyes’.
Stephen Dorff – who played the tragic ex-Beatles member Stuart Sutcliffe in the 1994 film ‘Backbeat’ – also said that he still can’t get his head round the fact that his brother was cruelly taken so young. “I still can't fucking believe it. This world is trippy, man. Sometimes I hate it. But then it's a beautiful place, too, to be alive. It's all so fragile,” he told Rolling Stone magazine. " I miss Andrew."
Coincidentally, Stephen has just made a movie about the Nashville music scene, entitled ‘Wheeler’, in which he plays an aspiring singer. "So this is a bittersweet time for me," he said.
Stephen now predicts that his brother – who also penned hit songs for major Nashville stars such as Kenny Chesney and Hunter Hayes – will have some posthumous hit singles.
“Four Number Ones in two years and he's going to have one with Rascal Flatts' [single "Yours If You Want It"]. He's probably going to have one with Keith Urban, and I think he's got a new one with Little Big Town,” Stephen told Rolling Stones magazine. “My dad's going through his catalog and he's only in the Bs yet. It took him all day yesterday. He had so many songs. Universal [Andrew's publishing company] said he's got 10 singles in the pipeline."
Andrew Dorff had followed in the footsteps of his father, the songwriter-composer Steve Dorff. He made a name for himself when he moved to Nashville from his hometown of California back in 2003 and singed a publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville.
He went on to write songs for the likes of Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Hunter Hayes, Ronnie Dunn and William Michael Morgan, among many others big names in the Nashville music scene.
Speaking back in October, Andrew Dorff told Music Row: “I want to keep writing songs that matter. There's not quite a greater feeling than having a song of yours come on the radio. You can't help it, you just turn it up a little louder.
"Having people tell you they heard your song on the radio and it affected them in some way, whether it's laughing, crying, dancing – that's why I do what I do."
Back in December, the President of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, Lee Thomas Miller wrote a touching Facebook post about Andrew’s sad death: “Our songwriting community is small and close and this loss will hurt us all deeply. Andrew was a good man and a good friend. He was an elite songwriter at the peak of his life and career,”
While Blake Shelton took to Twitter to express his sadness of the news. “Sad to be finding out about Andrew Dorff passing away… Terrible tragedy. Prayers to his family.”
Here’s the video for Blake Sheton’s ‘Neon Light':