RIP John Wetton

[Chris P.]

Another one.

[mc2NY]

Sad. One of the guys I truly admired. Loved his tone and how well he could play while singing lead.

Saw him in U.K. And also on his solo acoustic tour. Nice guy.

I thought he was an improvement in King Crimson over Greg Lake, mainly his vocal tone.

Definitely left his mark.

Man, there have sure been a lot of top bassists dead over the last 12 months or so.

[Happy Face]

Watch him singing and playing when he was in Uriah Heep. Then try it at home.

Awesome musician.

[mc2NY]

BTW.....What is that ugly bass he in playing in the photo above?

Looks like a combination of every favorite aspect of basses he had played over the years, slapped onto  one bass.

[Chris P.]

Watch out with insulting the Gibson freaks here

[uwe]

Jake, vee vill nöt be prövöked!

Ör else!

[Aussie Mark]

Watch him singing and playing when he was in Uriah Heep. Then try it at home.

Awesome musician.

[uwe]

There's a nice story to that song, Wetton recorded it with Heep in the studio and then Byron - the actual lead singer - came in and Wetton was concerned he'd throw a fit, the mood was edgy in the band by then and Byron's days numbered. Instead, Byron listened intently and then said: "That's real good, I think I'll play some keyboards to it." And so he did, that is Byron playing the keyboards on that studio track. He never asked to sing it. It was even the first track on High and Mighty, the last Heep album with Byron.

Byron and Wetton got along well at a time when the other Heep members had begun to hate Byron for his antics. I always wondered whether the fact that both were alcoholics - kindred spirits in the truest sense of the word - had to do with that. They both left at the same time - enter John Lawton (after David Coverdale, Gary Holton and Ian Hunter - a wild mix of singing styles for sure - all declined) and Trevor Bolder.

Unlike about his time with Wishbone Ash, Wetton never spoke badly of his tenure with Heep. Or as Hensley once quipped: "It bought him a house and sure enough he left us after he had paid it off."

No hard feelings though, decades later he would play it with Ken Hensley live - though not on bass ... (yet he pretty much doubles on guitar what the bassist does).