1. Cozy Powell is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential drummers of all time; many rock drummers have cited him as a major influence.
25 Facts About Cozy Powell
1. 2.
Cozy Powell started playing drums aged 12 in the school orchestra, thereafter playing along in his spare time to popular singles of the day.
3.
The first band Cozy Powell was in, called the Corals, played each week at the youth club in Cirencester.
4.
Aged 15, Cozy Powell had already worked out an impressive drum solo.
5.
The stage name Cozy Powell was borrowed from the jazz drummer Cozy Powell Cole.
6.
The late nights and usual on-the-road exploits began to affect his education, and Cozy Powell left to take an office job to finance the purchase of his first set of Premier drums.
7.
Cozy Powell struck up friendships with notable local musicians, including Robert Plant, John Bonham, future Slade vocalist Noddy Holder, bassist Dave Pegg and Tony Iommi.
8.
Cozy Powell began session work and, with fellow Sorcerers Dave and Denny Ball, formed Big Bertha.
9.
Cozy Powell played with swamp rocker Tony Joe White at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970.
10.
Cozy Powell landed the then highly prestigious drumming job with Jeff Beck's group in April 1970.
11.
Cozy Powell has stated in interviews he plays on the record, but this remains to be confirmed.
12.
In 1972 Cozy Powell drummed for two tracks on Harvey Andrews' album Writer of Songs.
13.
Cozy Powell's second hit during 1974 was with "The Man in Black", which reached No 18.
14.
Jeff Beck's studio producer was Mickie Most and Cozy Powell soon found himself drafted into sessions for artists signed to Most's RAK label, including Julie Felix, Hot Chocolate, Donovan and Suzi Quatro.
15.
Cozy Powell grew concerned with the overtly commercial direction and decided to leave, although not before Rainbow headlined the first Monsters of Rock show at Castle Donington, England, on 16 August 1980.
16.
Cozy Powell made headlines in 1986 when he appeared on the BBC children's programme Record Breakers, where he set a world record for the most drums played in under one minute, live on television.
17.
Cozy Powell played with May opening for Guns N' Roses on the second American leg of their Use Your Illusion tour in 1993.
18.
Cozy Powell briefly joined Yngwie Malmsteen for the album Facing the Animal in 1997.
19.
Cozy Powell's last recording session was for Colin Blunstone's The Light Inside, alongside Don Airey, which was released shortly after Cozy Powell's death.
20.
Cozy Powell had been dating a married woman who was having problems with her husband.
21.
Cozy Powell was ejected through the windscreen and died at the scene.
22.
Cozy Powell was living in Lambourn in Berkshire at the time and had returned to the studio shortly before his death to record with Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green.
23.
At the time of death, Cozy Powell had recently pulled out of tour rehearsals with Yngwie Malmsteen, having suffered an injury in a motorcycle accident.
24.
In October 2005, Cozy Powell made a "new" appearance on an album.
25.
Cozy Powell had a fascination with fast cars and motorbikes, and raced a Mazda RX3 sponsored by Hitachi on the UK saloon car circuit for a few months in the mid-seventies.