Ken Hensley
August 24, 1945 – November 4, 2020
The original keyboard player and second guitarist with Uriah Heep has died unexpectedly at the age of 75 following a short illness. During a ten-year stay, Ken Hensley wrote many of Heep’s signature songs, including Easy Livin’, Lady In Black, Stealin’, Sunrise and Wise Man. In a career that spanned six decades, he also played with The Gods, Toe Fat, Blackfoot, W.A.S.P. and Cinderella, among others, and also had solo projects and his own band Live Fire.
He was born Kenneth William David Hensley in the south-east London suburb of Plumstead, and the family moved to Stevenage in Hertfordshire shortly afterwards. He first picked up a guitar at the age of 12. After spells with several prototype groups, he formed The Gods with future Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor in 1965. Their line-up would include such luminaries as Greg Lake, Jethro Tull’s John Glasscock and two musicians who would later be his bandmates in Uriah Heep: bassist Paul Newton and drummer Lee Kerslake. After an album under the name Head Machine Hensley and Kerslake co-founded Toe Fat.
At Newton’s invitation, Hensley joined Spice just before they became Uriah Heep in January 1970, playing Hammond B3 organ and backing up Mick Box’s fiery guitar playing. Hensley also became a key writer and occasional lead vocalist for Heep. The band tinkered with their sound, but the arrivals in 1971 of Kerslake and bass player Gary Thain cemented their best-loved line-up, fronted by the effervescent David Byron.
Although Hensley’s lyrics spoke in otherworldly rhymes, he once cheekily confided: “Most of my songs are about failed romances. And I always blame them on the woman. As the writer that’s your prerogative.”
In 1972 Heep released their celebrated fourth album, Demons And Wizards, followed by a string of successors – The Magician’s Birthday, Sweet Freedom and Wonderworld – that placed them among the foremost rock bands of the era.
But behind the scenes things were not always so rosy. Hensley was an ambitious character. Despite the pair’s shared history, his relationship with Kerslake soured, and the drummer believes that Ken had him edged out of the band.
“Ken was an unusual bloke,” Kerslake told me years later. “Tell Ken to turn left and he’d always turn right. He was clever, but devious.”
Box, now the band’s last remaining original member, recalls that gradually Hensley “pulled away” from the others. “He had a separate set of friends,” he comments now. “Ken had his own tour manager. And at one point Heep had one of the best lighting rigs in the world, but Ken had to have an extra set above him. He went on record as saying he was never friends with the band, it was a business arrangement. But of course what he brought to the table was fantastic and we achieved success we could only have dreamed of.”
After Thain was dismissed for the heroin dependence that would take his life, in 1975 Heep brought in John Wetton, who played on Return To Fantasy and High And Mighty, before their long-term bassist Trevor Bolder joined in ’77.
Hensley’s addiction to cocaine only increased tension over the fact that his songs dominated the albums. The chasm between Hensley and producer, record label boss and manager Gerry Bron on one side and the other members of Heep soon became untenable.
“I didn’t help the situation, because I never made any secret of the fact that I’d just bought a Ferrari or a RollsRoyce or a new house,” Hensley told me many years later.
Hensley resigned from the group in 1980, following a tenth anniversary tour.
Although thoroughly exhausted by the many line-up changes, Hensley traced the problems back to the loss of Thain. “When Gary died a piece of the puzzle went missing,” he explained. “John Wetton was very talented but he didn’t fill in the hole that Gary left. From then on it never worked. It continued to sound like Uriah Heep, but it certainly didn’t feel like it.”
Further explaining his decision, Hensley once said: “I was a drug addict and a complete mess. One of the reasons why I moved to the US in 1981 was to re-gather myself, lose my addiction and get my feet back on the ground. I thought it might take two or three years, but it ended up closer to fifteen.”
Prior to leaving Heep, Hensley had recorded two well-regarded solo albums, Proud Words On A Dusty Shelf (1973) and Eager To Please (’75). Those were followed by the hit-and-miss Free Spirit.
“I was severely addicted to cocaine by then – I was lost,” Hensley told me
“I’ve had such a wonderful life, way beyond anything I ever dreamed of achieving.”
Ken Hensley