Legendary folk singer and social activist Pete Seeger died in his sleep Monday night at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He was 94-years-old.
Seeger had been at the hospital for six days. His grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson, said Seeger died peacefully, The Washington Post reported.
Bruce Springsteen called Seeger "the father of American folk music." But ironically, Seeger did not like the term "folk."
"It's been defined as the 'music of the peasants,' " Seeger said in a 2009 interview with USA Today, "and then you get someone saying (of Seeger) 'he's no peasant!' "
Seeger, who spoke out against Hitler and nuclear warfare, is known for writing the songs "If I Had a Hammer," "Turn, Turn, Turn," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," a song that calls for peace.
Seeger is also known for promoting songs like "This Land Is Your Land" and the civil rights movement anthem "We Shall Overcome," USA Today reported.
Seeger was born in New York City in 1919. Seeger attended Harvard University but dropped out in 1938 for a bike ride across America.
His career throughout the '50s and '60s was marked by political and social activism. The singer marched with Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr., and was blacklisted by TV networks because of his anti-Vietnam war song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," USA Today reported.
Seeger, who was against McCarthyism and a member of the Communist Party, was even convicted for contempt of Congress, a sentence that was later overturned.
"Songs won't save the planet," Seeger said to his biographer David Dunlap, according to USA Today. "But then, neither will books or speeches...Song are sneaky things. They can slip across boarders. Proliferate in prisons."
Seeger often quoted the philosopher Plato, "Rulers should be careful about what songs are allowed to be sung," USA Today reported.
Seeger later regretted his decision to join the Communist Party. But his protest against war did not stop there. The banjo-playing activist participated in peaceful demonstrations against the Iraq war, The Washington Post reported.
Seeger was asked during a 2008 interview with the Associated Press what his legacy was.
"Can't prove a damn thing, but I look upon myself as old grandpa," Seeger said, according to The Washington Post. "There's not dozens of people now doing what I try to do, not hundreds, but literally thousands...The idea of using music to try to get the world together is now all over the place."
