John Tilden Locke (September 25, 1943 – August 4, 2006) was an American keyboardist and a member of the rock group
Spirit. In the early 1980s, he was a member of the band
Nazareth
Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...
.
Biography
Locke was born in Los Angeles, California. His father was a classical violinist and his mother sang operas and was a composer. In 1967 he formed the Red Roosters with the guitarist
Randy California. A year later they had changed the name to Spirit and signed a deal with
Ode Records for four albums. He remained involved with the band during most of his career.
Besides Spirit, he performed on the
Tom Rush album ''Wrong End of the Rainbow''. In the period 1980–1982 he performed with the Scottish band Nazareth and appeared on three albums: ''
The Fool Circle
''The Fool Circle'' is the twelfth studio album by the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, released in February 1981. " Cocaine" was a live cover of the song written by J. J. Cale and recorded in 1977 by Eric Clapton. There are remastered editio ...
,'' ''
'
Snaz,'' and ''
2XS''. He also played keyboards on the
Stray Cats album ''
Gonna Ball,'' and on Randy California's solo albums ''Euro-American'' and ''Restless''.
Death
Locke died in
Ojai, California
Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and ...
, at the age of 62.
References
External links
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1943 births
2006 deaths
American rock keyboardists
Musicians from Los Angeles
Spirit (band) members
Nazareth (band) members
20th-century American keyboardists
{{US-keyboardist-stub
Deaths from cancer in California