Australia is mourning the death of a true rock and roll legend today. Billy Thorpe has died at age 60 in Sydney of a heart attack.
Thorpie was one of Australia's greatest rock icons. He suffered a major heart attack overnight and was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital at around 2am. He was pronounced dead at around 2.30am.Billy Thorpe was born in Manchester, England on March 29th, 1946. His parents emigrated to Brisbane, Australia when Billy was a boy.
Although only 60, Thorpie had been a name and a face in Australia for 50 years after first appearing on Brisbane television at the age of 10.
When he was 17, he moved to Sydney and formed the first incarnation of The Aztecs. They became Australia's biggest rock act of the 60s with hits like a cover of 'Poison Ivy', 'Mashed Potato' and a rock version of the Judy Garland 'Wizard of Oz' song 'Over The Rainbow'.
By the mid 60s, Thorpie was fronting his own television show 'It's All Happening'.
Dropping his pop star image, Thorpie reinvented himself with a new hard rock version of The Aztecs and became Australia's loudest band. In 1972, he recorded what is considered today to be one of Australia's greatest ever rock songs 'Most People I Know Think That I'm Crazy'.
In 1979, he reinvented himself again for the American market and scored a Top 20 album with 'Children of the Sun' in the USA. The new Thorpe was a cross between metal and techno.
His next incarnation was with Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood. The pair teamed for Zoo and released an album of the same name in 1990. It was his last album of new music although Thorpie recently posted at his website that he was working on a new album.
One interesting sideline of Thorpie's career came in 1985 when he formed a partnership with fellow Aztecs member Tony Barber to produce children's toys for the US market. The company produced toys for Disney, Hasboro and Universal.
Billy Thorpe is recognized as one of Australia's greatest guitarist. Australia today will mourn and remember one of the great blokes of rock.
