Rick Davies, the co-founder, vocalist and songwriter for the British rock band Supertramp, has died aged 81.
The band, best known for 1970s hits “Breakfast in America”, “Give a Little Bit” and “Take The Long Way Home”, announced in a statement on Sunday (7 September) that Davies had died at his Long Island home on 5 September after living with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.
“The Supertramp Partnership is very sad to announce the death of the Supertramp founder, Rick Davies after a long illness,” said the statement. “We had the privilege of knowing him, and playing with him for over fifty years.”
The band remembered Davies’ “warmth, resilience, and devotion to his wife Sue” and credited him as “the voice and pianist behind Supertramp’s most iconic songs, leaving an indelible mark on rock music history.
“His soulful vocals and unmistakable touch on the Wurlitzer became the heartbeat of the band’s sound … Rick’s music and legacy continue to inspire many and bears testament to the fact that great songs never die, they live on,” the statement said.
The musician was born in Swindon, England, in 1944, and developed an interest in music from a young age as a drummer and keyboardist.
According to Variety, one of his first bands, called Rick’s Blues, included Gilbert O’Sullivan, whom later highlighted Davies as a mentor.
In 1969, Davies was in a group called The Joint, but when they broke up, he went about starting a new project, and placed an ad in the British music publication Melody Maker.
Singer-songwriter, guitarist and songwriter Roger Hodgson responded to the advert, leading to the formation of a band called Daddy, which was renamed Supertramp in 1970.
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They enlisted Dougie Thomson, Bob Siebenberg, and John Helliwell, performing together from 1973 to 1983.
The band’s most successful album with 1979’s Breakfast in America, which peaked at number one on the Billboard album chart and included the hits “The Logical Song,” “Goodbye Stranger,” and “Take the Long Way Home”.
The band received Grammy nominations during their time together, including one in the Album of the Year category for Breakfast in America in 1980.
After their 1982 album, titled Famous Last Words…, Hodgson left the band to pursue a solo career after he and Davies were drifting apart and developed creative differences.
Hodgson built a home in the Northern California mountains, where he raised his family and pursued spiritual interests. Davies stayed in Los Angeles and continued working with the remaining Supertramp members.
They went on to record 1985’s Brother Where You Bound and 1987’s Free as a Bird albums, with Davies assuming the lead vocals and songwriting by himself. After a 1988 tour, the band went on hiatus until eight years later, when Davies reassembled a new Supertramp lineup minus Hodgson. Their final album, Slow Motion, was released in 2002.
In 2015, the band cancelled a 25-date European tour after Davies was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
Davies continued to perform even after his cancer diagnosis, often under the name Ricky and the Rockets.
He is survived by his wife, Sue, who has been Supertramp’s manager since 1984.
