A rock and roll lifer, guitarist, singer, and keyboardist Ken Hensley was born August 24, 1945 in Plumstead, London, England. He began playing guitar before he was a teenager and started gigging before he turned 16. He bounced from band to band throughout the late 1960s, playing with such future notables as Mick Taylor and Greg Lake in the group The Gods. In 1969 Hensley was invited to join the band Spice, who changed heir name the next year to Uriah Heep. It was in this group that Hensley came into his own as both a songwriter, singer, and musician, and over the next ten years he would record over a dozen albums with the band including hard rock classics like 1971’s Look at Yourself and 1972’s Demons and Wizards, and he would write the band’s most famous singles including “Look at Yourself”, “Easy Livin’”, “Lady in Black” and “July Morning”. Although he released a pair of solo albums in the 1970s, he left Uriah Heep in 1980 to focus on solo work, declaring his newfound freedom with the title of his 1980 release, Free Spirit. Though in a few short years he found himself a member of the southern rock band Blackfoot with whom he would record a pair of albums, 1983’s Siogo and 1984’s Vertical Smiles. He continued to release solo albums throughout the 1990s and the 21st century, and collaborated often with other artists and bands, notably hair-metal stalwarts Cinderella. Hensley passed away November 4, 2020 in Spain after a brief illness.
