Former URIAH HEEP keyboardist Ken Hensley has died. He was 75 years old.
The news of his passing was confirmed earlier today (Thursday, November 5) by his brother Trevor.
“I am writing this with a heavy heart to let you know that my brother Ken Hensley passed away peacefully on Wednesday evening,” Trevor wrote. “His beautiful wife Monica was at his side and comforted Ken in his last few minutes with us.
“We are all devastated by this tragic and incredibly unexpected loss and ask that you please give us some space and time to come to terms with it.
“Ken will be cremated in a private ceremony in Spain so please don’t ask for information about a funeral.
“Ken has gone but he will never be forgotten and will always be in our hearts.
“Stay safe out there.”
Ken was URIAH HEEP‘s keyboard player from 1970 to 1980. He wrote or co-wrote the majority of the band’s songs until his departure, including “Easy Livin'”, “Stealin'”, “Lady In Black” and “Free Me”.
I am writing this with a heavy heart to let you know that my brother Ken Hensley passed away peacefully on Wednesday…
Posted by Trevor Hensley on Thursday, November 5, 2020
Earlier this year, Ken told Eonmusic that he had no interest in returning to URIAH HEEP. “I did the reunion thing in Moscow with Mick [Box] about five or six years ago [on October 15, 2015 at Moscow Crocus], and I was just doing it for money,” he said. “That wasn’t all together a pleasant experience because I expected it to be like it was in 1975 or ’73 or ’74, so I was crushed by my own expectations, to be perfectly honest with you.
“I’m perfectly happy with where I am. I may have played my last show, because the virus has killed every show that I’d planned for this year, and we’re unlikely to be able to play next year. But that doesn’t bother me either, because I’ve had such a wonderful life, and so much of my life is way beyond anything I ever dreamed I would achieve, so I can sit back and say it was great, it was fantastic, and just get on with other things. I’m just very peaceful that it happened with where I’m at, and I know that if I got on stage with HEEP again, it would just be a facsimile, and I never want to be part of that.”
Regarding his departure from URIAH HEEP, Ken said: “We had almost a competition in the band on who would replace [previous singer] John Lawton, and the band took the majority position and hired John Sloman against my objections. And I knew he was wrong — somewhere between Gino Vannelli and Stevie Wonder, who desperately wanted to be Robert Plant, was never going to be the right front man for the band. And in the studio when we recorded ‘Conquest’, I couldn’t believe the vocals; it was impossible to get him to sing straight. And so I would moan regularly about it, in the producer’s chair, but it didn’t make any difference. By then, everybody was so enthralled by this new singer, and the fact that they had beaten me in a competition, and so yes, you’re right; by the time we left the studio after making that album I was done.
“I went on the obligatory European tour, which was no fun at all, and then we broke up in, I think Portugal, which was the last show we did. I woke up in my hotel room, and I said, ‘Well, that’s it; I’m done.’ Went back to London, called a meeting, and just said, ‘Sorry, but I’ve had enough,’ I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I didn’t want to do that.”
