ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DEC. 29, 2023
By Steve Newton
Today marks the birth date of hard-rock drummer Cozy Powell, who slammed the skins for the likes of Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, Black Sabbath, and Rainbow before perishing in a high-speed wipeout at the age of 50.
Powell–who had a fascination with fast cars and motorbikes–died on April 5 of 1998 when the Saab 9000 he was driving at a reported 104 mph went flying off the M4 motorway near Bristol, England, possibly because of a punctured rear tire.
As well as speeding in bad weather, Powell had been drinking and was talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, either.
He once said in an interview: “I drive like I drum–madly.”
Highlights of Powell’s career include performing on two Jeff Beck Group albums in the early ’70s, the Michael Schenker Group’s 1981 album MSG, Whitesnake‘s multiplatinum Slide It In of ’84, Gary Moore’s After the War, also of ’84, and Black Sabbath’s Headless Cross of ’89.
But he’s best remembered for his work in the seventies with Rainbow, particularly on 1976’s Rising and 1978’s Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll.
On the latter album he earned a songwriting credit–along with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and singer Ronnie James Dio–for the barnburner “Kill the King”, an early example of what would become known as “speed metal”.
Sadly, I never got to interview Cozy Powell before his untimely death, but to hear the full audio of my interviews with his former bandmates Gary Moore, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Schenker, Tony Iommi, and Jeff Beck subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 600 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with the legends of rock since 1982.