Cozy Powell Tributes

On Monday afternoon April the 6th, 1998, I received an Email from Neil Murray, a good friend of Cozy's and someone who I had a good relationship with.  Neil informed me that Cozy Powell was killed in a car crash the night before. I immediately rung up Neil to make sure this wasn't some sort of joke Email, and he told me it was true.

It would appear that Cozy was alone in his Saab 9000 when he lost control on the M4 motorway, and crashed between junctions 18 and 19 near Bristol.  He died of his injuries in the hospital.  I'm told that weather had a part in this, but I can't confirm this.

On Wednesday afternoon the 8th, I got a phone call from Cozy's girlfriend Shari.  She informed me that the funeral arrangements are extremely private, and it will be family only; that kind of thing.  The funeral itself will be Saturday April 18th.   It is hoped a much larger memorial service will be held at a later date.  When that is decided, information on it will be publicized here.

I received an Email on Sunday the 19th from Neil Murray giving some details of Cozy's Funeral.  If you'd like to read that, it is below.

A personal thought:  Cozy had just recovered from a foot accident he suffered which took him off the Malmsteen tour, and it's a damn shame.  Truly is.  I had only known Cozy for a short while, since around November of 1997, when we started talking about doing the web site, and I've never met him, however, I found him easy to work with, and a really great chap.  Cozy, never met ya, but I'll miss ya! If you have any of the albums Cozy recorded on, get 'em out and give 'em a spin in honor of Cozy.

I've had several Emails asking about using pictures from this site in tributes and news articles.  Feel free, just let me know where it's published so I can link to it. 

Joe Siegler - Webmaster
The Official Cozy Powell Web Site

Neil Murray on Cozy's Funeral

On Sunday the 19th of April, I received the following Email from Neil Murray after attending Cozy's funeral.

Dear Joe,

Cozy's funeral took place on Saturday 18 April at a crematorium in Wiltshire, which is about 90 miles west of London. It was a simple service, with hymns and prayers, as well as a reading by a friend of Cozy's, keyboard player Jim Johnson, and an emotional tribute by one of Cozy's closest friends, Frank Aiello, who was the singer with Bedlam and Hammer. The service ended with 'Let It Be' by the Beatles. There were dozens of floral arrangements and wreaths, with messages of sympathy from Tony Iommi, Geoff Nicholls, Tony Martin, David Coverdale and many others. Those attending in person included Brian May, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Don Airey, Glen Tipton (Judas Priest), Denny Ball (Bedlam), Spike Edney and Jamie Moses (Brian May Band) along with family members and other close friends. There are no definite plans for a memorial/tribute event, but I'm sure that something will be organised after people have had time to get over the initial shock of Cozy's death.

Yours sadly,
Neil

Neil played with Cozy Powell in many bands. Some of them are Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, Brian May Band, Peter Green's Splinter Band, and many others.

Neil's Tribute to Cozy

I woke up on Monday morning to the terrible news that Cozy had been killed, and I don't think it has registered properly yet, three days later. I can't believe that someone who was my main musical partner in recent years, and who I regarded as one of my best friends, had gone forever. Even after the hundreds of phone calls from friends and fellow musicians and reading the obituaries about him in newspapers, it still seems like a bad dream that we'll all suddenly wake up from.

For those who don't know, I played with Cozy in Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, Brian May's band, his own group Hammer, Peter Green's Splinter Group, as well as many sessions and concerts with such people as Steve Vai, Paul Rodgers, Yngwie Malmsteen, Robert Palmer, Jimmy Barnes, Jon Lord and Glen Tipton. I think we were a powerful and tight rhythm section, though I was definitely following his lead and (hopefully) adding to the drive that came naturally to him. He was possibly the most powerful drummer I have played with (and there have been quite a few), and he always gave 100% of his energy and commitment to whatever he played on. He had a really great drum sound, and always tried to get 'his' sound captured on record, which used a lot of room acoustic to achieve a huge sound. (Though some producers, such as on 'Forbidden' or 'Phenomena', chose not to use his trademark sound, which disappointed him and many listeners).

He was virtually an equal partner with Tony Iommi in Black Sabbath around the time of 'Headless Cross' and 'Tyr', and had a big say in the direction of the band and the songwriting. He would have been part of the 'Dehumanizer' lineup that followed if it had not been for an accident where his horse had a heart attack and crushed him against a car.

Alhough he was mostly known as a hard rock/heavy metal drummer, he was into many other types of music, but didn't get as much chance as he would have liked to play different styles once he was stereotyped as a hard rock player. He made it very easy for me to sound good, as he was so solid, but unfortunately sometimes solid, powerful, in-the-pocket drumming is not seen as being as exciting as more flashy shows of technique.

Cozy liked to put on a very visual show as well as just the music, and he became famous for his drum solos, which incorporated explosions, strobes and flame jets, which many other drummers copied, and they usually included him playing along to pieces of music such as Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

I first saw Cozy playing with Tony Joe White at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970 (just the two of them, no rehearsal), then quite a few times in the next two years with the Jeff Beck Group, which I was a big fan of. I became friendly with their bassist, Clive Chaman, and when he was playing with Cozy's band Hammer in 1974/5, I got the chance to deputise for him on a few occasions, which later directly led on to me playing with Whitesnake and Gary Moore, quite apart from all the projects I did with Cozy in the '80s and '90s.

Hammer was put together after the success of his solo singles 'Dance With The Devil' and 'The Man In Black', which led to him becoming one of the best-known drummers in the UK,though perhaps he was never as well-known in the States. He was perhaps the most well-known and idolised drummers in Japan, where he was recently voted No. 1 by the readers of 'Burrn!' magazine.

He was well-known for his love of fast cars and motorbikes, but it was less known that he had a deep love of animals and the countryside, and he was happiest to be by himself in the peace and quiet of the Berkshire countryside, going for long walks or riding horses. He had gone into partnership with a trainer of horses and was very excited about this new direction in his life.

It is very likely that after having had to drop out of a world tour with Yngwie Malmsteen recently, the next major project would have been touring again with Brian May, on whose forthcoming album 'Another World' he plays on most tracks.

I think Cozy will be missed by just about everyone that met him, because of his energy, his humour and his strength of character. He is irreplacable.

Thank you Cozy for letting me have the privilege of working with you and being your friend.

Other Tributes

Here are tributes by other contemporaries of Cozy's or former bandmates.
Unless otherwise stated, all tributes were sent to me via email.

Bill Ward

From Joe Siegler (This Site's Webmaster):

After I learned of Cozy's death, I rang up Bill Ward to see if he knew about it, and if he had any more info.  He did not, but in the evening Bill did write a eulogy for his friend Cozy Powell.  Here is Bill Ward's Eulogy for Cozy Powell:

At 9:15 p.m. Pacific time, Monday, April 6th, I received the news of Cozy's death. I am in a state of disbelief and deep pain.

Cozy was a meaningful and extremely supportive man in my life. Over the past few years he had suffered a number of accidents, and my care for him, and concerns, were expressed to him. Tonight, here in quiet Seal Beach, California, I am in despair, trying desperately to remember and account for all the good old days, the first time we met, and remembering our last conversation on Sunday, December 7th, 1997.

His death, I know, will affect many. My condolences go to his family, his friends, and his fellow musicians.

Cozy, in my opinion, was one of the greatest hard rock drummers in rock history., a direct speaking man with a love for many things, including his deep love for fast cars. I believe he'll be missed by many, many people. The legend will go on.

Cozy will remain in my heart until I die. The last time we saw each other, we hugged and held onto each other tightly, two old rockers, in the spirit of friends and drummers alike, each respecting the other. I thank God now that that happened on our last time together. Anything less would have made this night intolerable.

God Bless, Coze, you crazy so and so. With tears and a sad heart, I ask God to take good care of you. I will miss you Coze. I won't forget you or what you've shared with me. I am better for knowing you. Thank you.

Love always,
Bill

Bill Ward is well known for his work in Black Sabbath, as well as his solo work. He and Cozy never played together, but were good friends.

Tony Iommi

From Channel 4 Teletext (UK TV) page 481 April 10

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has spoken of his grief over the death of former bandmate Cozy Powell, who died on Sunday night after a car crash.

"I just can't believe it. It's a terrible shock. We first met nearly 30 years ago - it's been a long time and I've known him all his career. We were close friends all the time. He came to our last show in England in December, and we always kept in touch. We had some great times together.

He was certainly hot-headed. He did like driving fast, and he liked his jokes and pranks. He'd always been a little bit prone to accidents - he swerved one time to miss a deer and he turned his car over. He had a few accidents, but he always came out okay."

From Joe Siegler: I received this Email from Tony Iommi's Guitar Tech, Mike Clement. This following was written by Tony Iommi:

It has been a week since hearing the devastating news of Cozy's death and I still can't believe it.

I knew him for thirty years and he was one of my dearest friends. We had many great times together, I will miss him greatly.

My heart goes out to his family and all of his friends. It is a very sad time.

Goodbye to one of the greatest rock drummers of all time and a wonderful, caring human being.

Your Legend will live on!

R.I.P. Cozy, LOVE YA MATE

Tony Iommi

Tony played with Cozy twice in Black Sabbath, once from 1988-1991, and the second time from 1994-1995.  They were friends for the better part of 30 years.

Roger Glover

The world has lost a great man. Cozy Powell was one of those larger than life characters that one meets very rarely in life. Although we hadn’t seen much of each other over the last few years, we were still firm friends.

The first time I met him was in Musicland Studios in Munich where he had just finished work on Rainbow Rising. I played him some of my solo album Elements and he was so encouraging and enthusiastic I gave him a credit on the album. The last time I saw him was during the rehearsals for the Purpendicular tour, in England - he had come by to say hello and wish us well on our new venture.

I am devastated by the news of his death.

His challenging, lopsided grin and easy going charm endeared him to everyone and anyone fortunate enough to meet him. During my time in Rainbow we shared many a laugh and many adventures - stories about him are legion. He did nothing in half measures and the title of one of his solo albums was appropriate: Over The Top.

He was an extraordinary man.

My thoughts and condolences go out to those who were closest to him, his family and loved ones. We will mourn him but they will miss him the most. Cozy Powell R.I.P.

- Roger Glover

Roger played with Cozy Powell in Rainbow, and is also well known for his work in Deep Purple.

Ritchie Blackmore

From the Ritchie Blackmore Web Site:

We have just learned of the tragic passing of Cozy Powell in a motor car accident early Monday morning, April 6. Our heartfelt sympathy is extended to the family, friends, and fans of Cozy's.

The news of his death has been a great shock to us all. He will always remain with us: his friendship always valued, and his music immortalized.

Ritchie played with Cozy Powell in Rainbow for 3 studio and 2 live albums.

Yngwie Malmsteen

I am deeply saddened by the death of Cozy Powell who was a friend, collaborator, and mentor. His spirit will live on forever thorugh all the fans he touched during his life and his fantastic music that will aways be with us.

--Yngwie J. Malmsteen.

Cozy Powell played drums on Yngwie's current album at the time of Cozy's death, Facing the Animal.


Don Airey

This is to register our enormous sadness at Cozy's untimely passing. He was a great character, marvellous musician, and a good friend to us both and our family.

It was a privelege to have known him, and to have worked with him so often over the last 25 years. R.I.P. Cozy - we will always miss you and be thinking of you.

Love from

DON & DORIS AIREY

Don had played with Cozy on several projects over the years, and they were good friends.

Keith Emerson

I guess we all know about Cozy's liking for fast transportation. Nothing unusual about that. We all like to get from A to B quickly. If Cozys' getting from A to B quickly meant no distance-no time; Cozy could keep them both perfectly. He knew and respected his limitations and when he surpassed himself, which was often, there was never a boastful laugh. Everything he did was omni-directional, he was a great guy that nobody knew from whence he came. It's even sadder that Cozy didn't know where he came from either. While bearing a wonderful sense of humility he'd be pushing the envelope, knowing when to lick it down and post it. He was a fun-time Enigma unto himself. A revered Enigma by all of the people he worked with. Above all, one hell of a great drummer.

1986. I remember him bombing down to my barn studio in Sussex, to work with Greg Lake and myself. He set up his impressive drum rig and looked expectantly at both of us. Greg and I looked back. Cozy had no drum sticks! Cozy considered using some fallen branches from my orchard, until a local farmer drove into town to get some proper ones. They were not of the weight that Cozy would appreciate, but were sufficient enough when he held them upside down using the fat end. He went about the task of learning new and old material with total dedication. The old material sounding new, the new material sounding newer than new. For some reason he seemed reluctant to want to take a drum solo. "Nah, everybody does that" he'd say. But then he'd do it and it would be like World War 3 had erupted.

Somewhere I have some Super 8 footage of Emerson, Lake and Powell on board an airplane to their next gig. Cozy is acting the clown demonstrating the oxygen mask routine over the flight attendants drill. We're all laughing. Cozy is using a plastic cup for the oxygen mask and getting entangled in his belt at the same time. HILARIOUS

I MISS YOU MAN

Keith played with Cozy in ELP in the mid 1980's.. This text originally appeared on Keith's Site at http://www.picasso.net/emerson/

Greg Lake

I was very saddened to hear of the sudden death of Cozy Powell, in a car accident on Sunday April 5th., in London. Cozy was a close friend. He was bright, witty and a very warm individual. In addition, he was a great musician. His loss will be felt by all of those who knew him or worked with him. My condolences go out to his family.

Greg Lake
April 7th, 1998

Greg played with Cozy in ELP in the mid 1980's..  This text originally from Greg's Web site at http://www.dynrec.com/lake/



Ronnie James Dio

The musical world has lost a legend, and I've lost a friend in the passing of Cozy Powell. His brilliance as a drummer was evident to everyone who heard him perform, but it will always be his irrepressible spirit and full appetite for life that those of us fortunate enough to have known him intimately will remember. Cozy's physical pesence may be gone,but his place in our hearts will never be forgotten."

Ronnie James Dio
April 7, 1998

Ronnie played with Cozy in Rainbow, and was also briefly in Black Sabbath with him in 1991. This text originally appeared on Ronnie's site at http://www.ronniejamesdio.com



Tony Franklin

As a kid I was a big fan of Cozy Powell. From the brilliant live Rainbow album to the unique drum solo hit single "Dance With The Devil." I even covered "Dance" with my parents band -- my mother played drums if you can believe that!

When I received a call from Cozy in 1987 to join him and John Sykes in the then embrionic band Blue Murder, it was an honor and a thrill. We jammed and hung together for six months before Cozy went his own way. He was an exciting and super nice guy.

It was a tragedy to lose him in this way. Cozy was one of a kind. He will be sadly missed. Keep jammin' up there Cozy!

See you later
Your friend,
Tony Franklin

Tony played with Cozy briefly in the embryonic stages of the band Blue Murder.

Peter Ball

To all those who knew and loved Cozy, words cannot express my deep sorrow at the loss of a dear old friend. My brother Denny in London has already expressed his thoughts on behalf of the family more than adequately. He mentioned that Cozy was found by The Sorcerors in Germany, well that was my band, and we stole him from a Bristol band (sorry guys) as we were a Hollies type band, and saw in Cozy a Bobby Elliott type drummer who would suit us down to the ground. How good a decision that was, we got better and better for his incredibly tight style, and great time keeping. Socially anyone who knew him will vouch that he was a loon at all times. He scared the s**t out of me on more than one occasion with his very quick and safe driving. (Too fast for me obviously). We toured Germany and turkey doing the US bases for a couple of years having a whale of a time, and our stage shows were improved tremendously by his crazy sense of humour. Imagine Cozy aged about 30, (a pretty boy in those days) dressed up as a tart drumming with a smirk on his face! Oh what memories! We brought him back to the family home in Sutton Coldfield and took him in, and hit the road as Young Blood, making a few Pye records. He was always going to be too good to go unnoticed, and after we formed Big Bertha with Denny, Dave Ball (ex Procul) and others, he got snaffled by Jeff Beck, and that was the end of us! But, that was the start of Cozy's meteoric rise to fame and the rest as they say is history! I've been in South Africa for 24 odd years, (after a 1 year musical contract that we kept extending!) and i've only got home a couple of times, but managed to see Cozy at his farmhouse near London, where we talked about the old days in Brum, doing the Swan in Yardley for 20 quid! I'm coming over in May for a UK visit, and he was on my list of calls. How sad it is that his untimely death came too soon. Cozy, I'll always remember you and our early, formative years, I never envied your success, you earned it fair and square. God Bless

Peter Ball
Johannesburg, South Africa

Peter played with Cozy in his pre-Bedlam days

Carmine Appice

I was shocked to hear of Cozy's death..We go back 28 years to the days he played with Jeff Beck..I talked to Jeff today to find out details of what happened..We always traveled in the same musical circles..Cozy was a great drummer and a great guy. I will and all his friends in Los Angeles will miss him an awful lot and may he rest in peace..GOD BLSS YOU COZ !!! I went on the radio today at a local classic rock station and did an on-air tribute to Cozy...we then played GOIN" DOWN. Everyone loved Cozy......


Simon Wright

Hello Joe,

This is Simon Wright the drummer of UFO, formerely of AC/DC and Dio.  I heard the tragic news about Cozy, I only met Cozy once at the Universal Amphitheatre in 95 when he was with Sabbath, A very amicable, down to earth chap.  I especially wanted to say hello, after trying to bang along to his tracks when I was a kid.  As one drummer to another I had the utmost respect for him !  I can remember trying to replicate the opening drum riff into Stargazer, he played it with such precision and power, I hoped I did him justice. This is a great loss to the drum world and music all over. 

With deepest respects to his fellow musicians, friends and family.

Simon Wright

Other Notable Tributes

Joe Geesin

I'd never heard of Cozy Powell until a friend played me the Rainbow Rising album. That LP, particularly the track "A Light In The Black" turned me onto not only rock music, but also record collecting. I heard it and immediately looked at who played on it thinking "I must have more!". Cozy's drumming and his music had an uplifting and adrenalin inducing effect on me from the word go. An instant fan, I soon built up an impressive collection and wealth of information. When I got to interview him for a magazine, it was like meeting God. An Idol. I soon found out that as well as living life like he played the drums, he was also friendly, thoughtful and easy going. We soon became friends, and when I offered to start up a fanzine/newsletter, he was not only pleased but enthusiastic. He took a day off from recording with Brian May to see me about it, and his co-operation second to none. We met several times and he phoned me every week to keep me informed. On hearing of his tragic accident I was devastated. I hadn't just lost a drummer and idol, but also a friend and colleague. I am still in a state of shock. His last phonecall to me, when he spoke of his enthusiasm of going back on the road with Brian after dissappointingly missing the Yngwie tour will stay with me forever. I will continue to put out the newsletter, not just as a tribute, but also as I feel there is so much to the man and his music the story cannot end just yet. A friend has gone, but his music will live on for me and many others for a long time. A very long time.

Joe Geesin ran the Official Cozy Powell Newsletter, NaNaNa.

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