SYRACUSE (CelebrityAccess) – Kim Simmonds, co-founder and guitarist of Savoy Brown, died Tuesday (December 13) at 75. News of his passing was announced via the band’s social media pages.
Simmonds announced this past August that he had been battling stage-four Signet-Cell colon cancer for nearly a year. The National Library of Medicine says Signet-Cell is a “rare form of colon cancer that accounts for less than one percent of colorectal cancer and leads to more aggressive outcomes primarily because of its late detection.”
Simmonds posted in August: “I’ve been receiving chemotherapy, and that has made it hard for me to play gigs. One of the side effects is peripheral neuropathy which has now deadened the nerves in my fingers and hands (feet too).”
Simmonds formed the Savoy Brown Blues Band in 1965 when he was 18 in London. The band played gigs alongside Cream and John Lee Hooker as their careers grew.
The band had many lineup changes, at one point recruiting some of Christine McVie’s band members from Chicken Shack. Simmonds, Paul Raymond (keyboards), Andy Silvester (bass), and Dave Bidwell (drummer) traveled overseas and opened up for acts such as Rod Stewart.
They released albums like Street Corner Talking and Hellbound Train, which reached No. 34 on the Billboard 200.
The lineup would continue to change but Simmonds never left. He released his first solo album, called Solitaire, in 1997. He released a few more solo records and more than a few with Savoy Brown. Their 2017 album, Witchy Feeling, reached No. 1 on the Billboard blues charts. He performed and appeared on every album the band recorded.
He moved to Oswego County (Syracuse, NY) in 1992 and is originally from Wales. He was a staple around the county playing at the Dinosaur BBQ, the New York State Budweiser Rhythm & Blues Festival, and Oswego’s Harborfest.
He told Forbes in 2019, “Upstate New York gave me my new life and helped me escape the nuttiness of life. Winter goes on forever, but love conquers all. I fell in love with my wife who hails from the area, and we’ve been happily married for 28 years.
Savoy Brown continued to tour over the decades until Simmonds’ health issues led to the cancellation of all live shows in 2021.
He is survived by his wife Deborah, and daughter Eve.
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