On May 1, 2017, Hampton was being honored with a concert featuring his friends at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia for his 70th birthday when he collapsed on-stage of a heart attack during an encore performance of "Turn on Your Lovelight." As a result, Hampton lay slumped over an amplifier on the edge of the stage for several minutes before he was taken offstage for medical attention; because people thought he was joking. He died shortly thereafter at Emory University Hospital Midtown.