TONY THOMPSON, R.I.P.
Chic/Power Station Drummer Tony Thompson Dead
Tony Thompson, the drummer who powered hits by the Power Station, Chic, and Diana Ross, and who almost joined Led Zeppelin, died in Encino, California, on Wednesday (November 12), just three days shy of his 49th birthday. Thompson had battled renal cell cancer and had undergone surgery earlier this year in an effort to combat the disease. He is survived by his wife Patrice and their two children.
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Following his success with Chic, Thompson developed a reputation as an ace session drummer. He got the call to work with Diana Ross on 1980’s Diana, David Bowie on 1983’s Let’s Dance, Madonna on 1984’s Like A Virgin, and Mick Jagger on 1985’s She’s The Boss, among many others.
He also joined Robert Palmer and Duran Duran’s John and Andy Taylor in forming the Power Station, which had Top 10 hits in 1985 with “Some Like It Hot” and a cover of T. Rex’s “Get It On (Bang A Gong).” Several years ago, Thompson told LAUNCH how he got involved in the Power Station. “We met in the bathroom in Sydney, Australia,” Thompson said. “John Taylor came over and said he was a fan of my work, and we just said, ‘Let’s work together, you know, let’s do something.’ And I thought, you know, once I left Australia, and he went off to Europe, that I’d never hear from him again. Well, I went to the south of France, and I got this phone call, and John drove down and said, ‘Yeah, I’m really still interested in this doing something together.'”
Thompson got the call of a lifetime when he was asked to play with Led Zeppelin at Live Aid in 1985. Following that one-off gig, they started recording some new material, but the sessions ended after Thompson was in a serious car accident, and the music has never been released.
I didn’t know the man by name, but remember a lot of his music. “Le Freak” was an absolute craze when I was in elementary school and Power Station had their 15 minutes when I was an undergraduate.
Sad and yet baffling:
Like many musicians, Thompson died without health insurance, and his family is stuck with huge medical bills. Anyone wishing to make a tax-deductible donation can do so at tonythompsonfund.com, or at nilerodgers.com.
A benefit concert will be held on December 16 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles. The lineup should be announced soon.
You’d think that many hit songs would generate enough money, even for the drummer, to afford health insurance.
You would think that but I can tell you from personal experiance that the record company Execs all have fairly beefy plans.
Wait…Le Freak came out when we were in elementary school? I always remember it from junior high, maybe 1978 or 79. Not that that is important.
It was 1978. I think I was in 6th grade at the time, although it could have been 7th, depending on when in the year.
In 1978, I was in the 6th grade.
School years typically overlap. I was in 6th grad in 1977-78 and 7th grade in 1978-79.
Ok, then. I was in 5th grade in 77-78 and 6th grade 78-79. Better? 😆 I moved in between those grades, so I remember that song as being from my 6th grade era as I associate it with my new school days that year. I tend to remember that kind of stuff by where I lived when the song, TV show, movie, book, etc. came out, was seen/read/heard.
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