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Uriah Heep's Ken Hensley dead at 75

Former Uriah Heep keyboard player and guitarist Ken Hensley has sadly passed away, his brother has confirmed in a Facebook post.

Trevor Hensley took to the platform to say "I am writing this with a heavy heart to let you know that my brother Ken Hensley passed away peacefully on Wednesday evening. 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 Hensley joined Uriah Heep in 1969, when the band were still performing under the moniker 'Spice'.

Mick Box and co were looking to expand their sound, as he explained: "We'd actually recorded half the first album when we decided that keyboards would be good for our sound. I was a big Vanilla Fudge fan, with their Hammond organ and searing guitar on top, and we had David's high vibrato vocals anyway so that's how we decided to shape it"

For his first contribution to the band Ken simply re-recorded some existing keyboard tracks and helped the rest of the band finish a few tracks on their iconic debut album '...Very 'Eavy ...Very 'Umble'.

Ken was more than just an addition in terms of sound, however, being a skillful songwriter himself. "I saw a lot of potential in the group to do something very different" he recalled, and sure enough, for their next 10 years he was one of the band's principal songwriters

In his time with Heep, he wrote or co-wrote the anthemic Lady In Black, Easy Livin', Stealin', The Wizard and many more.

The thoughts of all of us at Planet Rock are with Ken's family and friends at this time. Rest in peace Ken.

Source: msn.com
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