Rick Davies, co-founder and lead singer of the British progressive rock band Supertramp, died Saturday, September 6, 2025, at his home in East Hampton, New York. He was 81 years old.
Davies succumbed to multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer he had battled for more than a decade, according to an announcement posted Monday on the band’s website. The diagnosis, which came in 2015, had prevented him from touring with Supertramp in recent years.
Born July 22, 1944, in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, Davies discovered his passion for music as a child after hearing Gene Krupa’s “Drummin’ Man.” This early exposure grew into a lifelong dedication to jazz, blues and rock music that would shape his distinctive sound.
In 1969, at age 25, Davies placed an advertisement in the British music publication Melody Maker seeking musical collaborators. Roger Hodgson, then 19, responded to the call, and the partnership that would become Supertramp was born. The duo initially performed under the name Daddy before adopting the Supertramp moniker, taken from a 1908 book titled “The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp.”
The band’s early albums in 1970 and 1971 garnered little commercial attention, but their fortunes changed dramatically with 1974’s “Crime of the Century.” This third studio album marked Supertramp’s breakthrough, featuring Davies’ composition “Bloody Well Right,” which became their first hit on the U.S. singles chart in 1975. The song prominently showcased Davies’ jazz-inflected electric piano work on the Wurlitzer, an instrument that became synonymous with the band’s sound.
The songwriting partnership between Davies and Hodgson proved remarkably effective, with the two musicians complementing each other’s strengths. Davies brought working-class sensibilities and jazz-blues roots, while Hodgson contributed classical training and an ethereal vocal style. Their voices were so similar in timbre that casual listeners often had difficulty distinguishing between them.
Supertramp achieved their commercial peak with 1979’s “Breakfast in America,” which spent six weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart and sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. The album earned two Grammy Awards and went quadruple-platinum in the United States. Davies contributed “Goodbye Stranger” to the album, a Top 20 hit about an unrepentant drifter that became one of the band’s most enduring songs.
The album also featured other major hits including “The Logical Song” and “Take the Long Way Home,” both penned by Hodgson, which reached the Top 10 on various charts. These tracks, along with “Give a Little Bit” from 1977, have each accumulated more than 500 million streams on Spotify, demonstrating their lasting appeal.
The band’s success was further amplified by strategic use in popular culture. Director Paul Thomas Anderson memorably featured “Goodbye Stranger” in a dramatic scene in his 1999 film “Magnolia,” while “The Logical Song” also appeared in the movie. Their music has since been featured in numerous films and television shows including “Superman,” “The Simpsons,” “Freaks & Geeks,” “I, Tonya,” and “The Morning Show.”
Despite their commercial success, creative tensions led to Hodgson’s departure following the band’s 1983 tour. Hodgson later explained that the group had become stagnant and he could no longer grow artistically within its confines. Davies continued leading Supertramp without his former partner, recording and touring intermittently until 1988, when the band initially disbanded.
Davies revived Supertramp in 1996 without Hodgson’s participation, performing the vocal parts originally sung by both members. The reformed band continued touring and recording until their final performance in Madrid in 2012. When Davies’ cancer diagnosis prevented further touring, he remained musically active by performing locally on Long Island with a group called Ricky and the Rockets.
The band’s tribute described Davies as having “soulful vocals and unmistakable touch on the Wurlitzer” that became “the heartbeat of the bands’ sound.” Beyond his musical contributions, he was noted for his warmth, resilience, and devotion to his wife Sue, with whom he shared more than five decades of marriage.
Davies is survived by his wife Sue, who also served as his career manager. The band’s final statement emphasized that his music and legacy continue to inspire many, testifying that great songs never die but live on through their enduring impact on listeners worldwide.
