Greg Kihn, pop icon, DJ and novelist, has died at the age of 75.
Kihn was born in Baltimore in 1949 and, like plenty of others from his generation, decided to become a musician. The turning point came the day he watched The Ed Sullivan Show and saw The Beatles perform.
In 1976 he put out his debut album, and its mix of folk, classic rock, blues and pop pulled in enough of an audience that he started getting noticed! His breakthrough came in 1981 with the single The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em), released as Greg Kihn Band. It climbed into the US Hot 20. Two years later, Jeopardy became an even bigger hit, reaching number two in the US and becoming his only hit in the UK.
In 2017 Kihn released his last album, “Rekihndled” – his first in more than two decades – but music wasn’t all he was known for. Over the course of his career he also wrote six novels. For 17 years he hosted the morning show on classic rock radio station KFOX in San Jose. At home he even kept a rare species of praying mantis, and he was also known for his charity work, raising money for years for Operation Care and Comfort, a nonprofit that sends care packages to American soldiers overseas.
