William Richard "Billy" Thorpe, (Manchester, 29 March 1946 – Sydney, 28 February
2007) was an English-born Australian pop/rock singer-songwriter,
producer, and musician. As lead singer of his band Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, he had success in the 1960s with "Blue Day", "Poison Ivy", "Over the Rainbow",
"Sick and Tired", and "Mashed Potato"; and in the 1970s with "Most
People I Know Think That I'm Crazy". Featuring in concerts at Sunbury Pop Festivals and Myer Music Bowl in the early 1970s, the Aztecs also developed the pub rock scene and were one of the loudest groups in Australia.
Thorpe also performed as a solo artist; he relocated to the United States from 1976 to 1996 where he released the space opera Children of the Sun, which peaked in the top 40 of the Billboard Pop Album chart in 1979. He worked with ex-Aztec Tony Barber to form a soft toy company in 1987 and co-wrote stories for The Puggle Tales and Tales from the Lost Forests. Thorpe also worked as a producer and composed music scores for TV series including War of the Worlds, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Columbo, Eight Is Enough and Hard Time on Planet Earth.
Thorpe returned to Australia in 1996 and continued as a performer and producer, additionally he wrote two autobiographies, Sex and Thugs and Rock 'n' Roll (1996) and Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy) (1998). According to Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane,
"Thorpie evolved from child star, beat pop sensation and cuddly pop
crooner to finally emerge as the country's wildest and heaviest blues
rocker [...] Thorpie was the unassailable monarch of Australian rock
music". Thorpe was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 1991. He died of a heart attack in February 2007 and was posthumously appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in June for his contribution to music as a musician, songwriter and producer.
(...)
Thorpe suffered from chest pains at his home on 28 February 2007 and was taken by an ambulance to St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney around 2:00 am AEDT after having a massive heart attack.
He remained in the emergency ward in a serious condition and went into
cardiac arrest around half an hour later; hospital staff unsuccessfully
attempted to resuscitate him. His family was by his side when he died at
60 years of age.
Thorpe is survived by his wife Lynn, and daughters Rusty and Lauren.
His manager Michael Chugg said the death was a "terrible tragedy", as
Thorpe had just finished recording a new album Tangier and was very happy after a recent acoustic tour. He was posthumously appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
on 11 June 2007, with the citation, "For service to the entertainment
industry as a musician, songwriter, producer, and as a contributor to
the preservation and collection of contemporary Australian music". In December 2020, Thorpe was listed at number 31 in Rolling Stone Australia's "50 Greatest Australian Artists of All Time" issue.
in Wikipédia
