Lucifer's Friend bassist Dieter Horns dead at 74

 Dieter Horns
February 28, 1946 - December 19, 2020

Dieter Horns, bassist and co-founding member of German hard rockers Lucifer's Friend, passed away Saturday morning. His death was announced by the band's Facebook page- with singer John Lawton saying Horns will be remembered for his "musicianship, songwriting and the respect of other musicians." No cause of death has was announced. 

Horns was on the co-founding members of Lucifer's Friend, who originally formed in 1968 as Electric Food. Along with Horns was singer George Mayros, guitarist Peter Hesslein, drummer Joachim "Addie" Reitenbach and keyboardist Peter Hecht. After two albums, Mayros left the band and was replaced by English singer John Lawton. The band would then change their name to Asterix before finally changing their name to Lucifer's Friend. For most of the early 1970s, Lucifer's Friend were part of the German rock- aka Krautrock- scene. The band would achieve success throughout most of Europe and elsewhere except the United States- where they never toured. The band are perhaps best known for their song "Ride the Sky"- a trailblazing heavy psych rocker. While mostly associated with heavy psych and progressive rock, the band would change it up with every album released. In their time together, the band would go through several line-up changes- with the most notable being singer John Lawton departure. Lawton joined Uriah Heep, replacing original singer David Byron. Lucifer's Friend would continue with singer Mike Starrs, which drove the band to a more AOR sound. Lawton rejoined in 1981 but the band would soon cease activity in 1982. 

Lucifer's Friend would reform briefly in 1994 under the name Lucifer's Friend II. Due to inner tensions between the band members at the time, Horns was not in the band during this time- with Lawton and Hesslein being the only original members. Nearly 20 years later in 2014, Lucifer's Friend reunited with Horns, Lawton and Hesslein as the returning original members. Given Reitenbach's death in the early 2010's and Hecht lack of interest, the band recruited drummer Stephen Eggart and keyboardist Jogi Wichmann to replace them. Prior to Horns' passing, Lucifer's Friend had released two albums- Too Late to Hate (2016) and Black Moon (2019). 

According to the Facebook post, Horns is survived by his longtime partner Hannelore. 

Hearing about Mr. Horns' passing is sad. I interviewed Lucifer's Friend via email in 2016. While email interviews aren't the best, these guys were friendly and it was great to learn a little more about a band that aren't all that famous. 

My thoughts go out to Mr. Horn's family and friends at this point in time. 

To read my interview with Lucifer's Friend from 2016, click here.