>Could be an urban legend - or a mixup on the part of whoever wrote that bit of news years ago.
According to the Snopes site, he isn't even dead yet.
http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/mcferrin.htm
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)