Penn, who also served as band manager for North Texas rock legends Polyphonic Spree and Tripping Daisy, was hospitalized in March after injuring himself in a fall at the record store. The fall bruised Penn’s spinal cord and caused immediate paralysis from the neck down. He suffered a bad fall in 2024, which eventually required surgery and led to the discovery that he has a rare condition that caused his spinal canal and spine to fuse.
According to Jennifer Penn’s message, “His injuries were too great for his ravaged body to continue.”
In an April 4 Dallas Morning News column, Robert Wilonsky detailed his visit to Penn’s hospital room. Although he needed a machine to help him breathe, Penn was upbeat and hopeful and ready to fight for his family and his life. No one who knew Penn was surprised to read about his willingness to meet such a challenge with a smile.
“If there is a heaven, and I hope there is one more than ever, I’m sure his arrival is causing a stir," Jennifer Penn’s message says. “He is free of pain and suffering, dancing in that familiar style only Chris could claim as his own. Can you imagine Chris’s Heaven? I hope its filled with Mexican food, pinball machines, and a movie theater playing all the classics.”
Penn is survived by his wife and three sons.
Penn has been a beloved personality for decades, and social media has been filled with memories and tributes over the past few weeks. During her April 6 concert at the Bomb Factory, St. Vincent, also known as Annie Clark from Lake Highlands High School, told the crowd of thousands how much Penn has meant to her personally.
“Who here remembers going to a place called CD World?” Clark asked. “Some of you are young, and that’s cute — going to a place, rolling up like I did tonight in your mom’s Hyundai minivan and going in to buy your first Nick Cave CD. You didn’t know it, but that CD would inform your entire life. The man who sold you that CD is a fucking legend we are all here to support — he has touched your life, whether you know it or not: the incredible Chris Penn!”
Thanks to his efforts as DeeJay CeePee or as the man who turned Dallas into the Alice Cooper Band’s unofficial adopted hometown, not to mention his willing help at the Good Records shelves, it’s impossible to know how many music lovers feel the same way about Penn as St. Vincent does.
