Kim Simmonds, Savoy Brown Co-Founder, Dead at 75

Musician Kim Simmonds, a co-founding singer/guitarist of the classic blues rock band Savoy Brown, has died. He was 75. On Thursday, the administrator of the Savoy Brow-Simmonds Facebook page shared the sad news. "Kim Simmonds passed away peacefully in the evening of December 13th -- may he rest in peace." 

The post included a photo of Simmonds, and added lyrics to the Savoy Brown song "All I Can Do," which read, "You've gone away. We'll get by somehow. Just right now... All we can do is cry." The image also offered, "Please note one of Kim's last requests was to thank the fans of SAVOY BROWN – your support was, and shall always be, immensely appreciated." There is no official work on Simmonds' cause of death, but the Facebook page had previously noted that he was in the hospital fighting cancer.

"Kim Simmonds is battling stage 4 signet cell colon cancer and is currently hospitalized due to recent complications," read a post shared on Dec. 2. "We're hoping he can be discharged in time to spend his 75th birthday (on December 5th) at home with family and friends. In preparation for his discharge, let's provide Kim with some reading material to pass the time he'll need while continuing to recover from the recent setbacks."

The post continued, "Please leave a comment to let Kim know what impact he and/or Savoy Brown may have had on you ... such as a favorite thing about the band ... or ... his guitar playing ... or ... his solo material ... or .... a favorite experience seeing the band ... or ... meeting Kim at a show ... or a favorite album or song ... or ... whatever you'd like to say. We thank you in advance."

The news of Simmons' death has brought out a number of memorials on social media, including one from Foghat, who wrote, "We are very sad to let you know that our good friend, brother and Rogers former band mate Kim Simmonds has passed away. We send our love to his wife Debbie and his daughter and all of Kim's wonderful fans and friends. We will miss you Kim. Rest now." Notably, all three original members of Foghat — Dave Peverett (guitar/vocals), Tony Stevens (bass), and Roger Earl (drums) — were, first, members of Savoy Brown.

Simmonds co-founded Savoy Brown with harmonica player John O'Leary in London in 1965 but was the band's only remaining original member at the time of his death. His bandmates for the past several years have been Pat DeSalvo (bass, backing vocals) and Garnet Grimm (drums). Over the years, the band released more than three dozen projects, with the most recent being Ain't Done Yet in 2020, as well as the live album Taking the Blues Back Home: Live in America the same year.