In Remembrance of Cozy
The reason for this intro is that today (April 5th) is the 10th anniversary of the death of Cozy Powell. He died on April 5, 1998 in a car crash, and it still seems odd to me. Now I know my place in the world. I run the Sabbath site, I do the newsletter, but to this day it still surprises me that in 1997 I get a phone call at my desk from Cozy Powell in England asking me if I’d want to do a website for him. I’d been working for Bill Ward briefly at that time, but I sought out Bill. Cozy sought me out. That was quite the surprise. We didn’t get to work long before he died, but in that brief time he was very cordial to me.
Anyway, I don’t have a ton to write about Cozy – what more needs to be said? So on this anniversary of his death, I want to re-run what I wrote 10 years ago when he died. Also, check out this link on my Sabbath’s site’s news page where I have collected several Cozy videos you might want to check out.
This might be a day to get out some of Cozy’s music, and give it a spin. I also urge you to check out the two Brian May solo albums from the mid 90’s. Cozy (and Neil Murray) play on both. They’re two seriously under appreciated albums:
Back to the Light (1993)
Another World (1998)
Joe Siegler – Webmaster
Black Sabbath Online
The Official Cozy Powell Website
Original April 1998 News Story:
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.