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The sad story of Alvin Lee’s death, Ten Years After guitarist
Alvin Lee is another case of the great guitarists who left us very early. The musician left an incredible legacy ahead of Ten Years After, a great band unfortunately little remembered in rock history.
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With Lee on vocals and in long guitar solos, the song “I’m Going Home” introduced Ten Years Afters to wider audiences, and was included in the 1970 documentary “Woodstock.”
The band would still release hit with songs like “Love Like a Man” (1970) and “I’d Love to Change the World” (1971). In 1973, Lee left the band, of which he was one of the founders, to pursue a solo career.
He returned in 1988. Ten Years After released 11 studio albums between 1966 and 2008, and Lee had 14 solo albums in his career, until “Still on the Road to Freedom” in 2012, his last release.
Alvin Lee’s death
In 2013, the guitarist died unexpectedly unforeseen complications in a routine surgical procedure in Spain. He was 68. The family revealed in a statement on the artist’s official website, without saying what kind of surgery was it.
His family released a statement at the time saying:
“With great sadness we have to announce that Alvin unexpectedly passed away early this morning after unforseen complications following a routine surgical procedure,” his homepage reads. “We have lost a wonderful much-loved father and companion, the world has lost a truly great and gifted musician. Jasmin, Evi and Suzanne.”
Alvin Lee performing live in 2012:
Alvin Lee was born in 1944 in Nottingham, England. At 13 he started playing the guitar and in the 60s decided to take the music seriously playing with blues bands. In 1967, after some successful failed attempts, Lee founded Ten Years After with bassist Leo Lyons.
Taken from the British Blues Explosion of the mid-1960s, Ten Years After was a band that focused their creativity on the virtuosity of vocalist and guitarist Alvin Lee. Following a different path from the blues purism of Fleetwood Mac’s first incarnation or psychedelic vertigo. Which marked the short career of Jack Bruce’s Cream, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton.
