Rick Davis, one of the two co-founders, frontman and main songwriters of the British band Supertramp, which topped the charts with the album “Breakfast in America“, has died after a long battle with cancer, the band confirmed in a statement, Variety reported.
He was 81 years old.
Davis, who wrote and sang Supertramp hits such as “Goodbye Stranger“ and “Bloody Well Right“, had a deeper and less distinctive voice than his former partner Roger Hodgson, who wrote and sang the band's biggest hit “The Logical Song“. Yet it was he who continued the band after Hodgson split in 1983 over various disputes that began with creative differences but escalated to songwriting copyright and other issues that were heard in court as recently as last month.
“The Supertramp Partnership is deeply saddened to announce the death of Supertramp founder Rick Davies after a long illness“, the statement said. “Rick passed away at his home in Long Island on September 5. We had the privilege of knowing and playing with him for over fifty years. Our sincere condolences go out to Sue Davies.“
Davies was born in Swindon, England in 1944 and became interested in music at an early age, first as a drummer and later as a keyboardist. One of his early bands, Rick's Blues, featured future "Alone Again, Naturally" singer Gilbert O'Sullivan on drums, who later credited Davis as a key mentor. After playing with a number of bands, in 1969 he decided to form a new one, and Hodgson was one of the musicians who answered his call. Despite their dramatic differences in voice and background, they became close musically and, after a brief period of being called Daddy, they changed their name to Supertramp in January 1970.
The band signed to A&M and their popularity grew with each album, making their first breakthrough with the album "Crime of the Century", which was driven by the single "Bloody Well Right", written by Davis. Their success and popularity grew with each successful album - including 1977's In the Quietest Moments, which featured Hodgson's hit "Give a Little Bit" - until they reached their peak with Breakfast in America, released in the spring of 1979. However, they were unable to maintain this success, and Hodgson left after the band's seventh album, Famous Last Words.... Davis continued to play with the band for four more albums, the last of which was 2002's Slow Motion, and continued to play as late as 2022, although often under the name Ricky and the Rockets. In 2015, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.