David Clayton Thomas, lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears, dies at 84 Music

David Clayton Thomas, lead singer of the 1960s and 1970s band Blood, Sweat & Tears, has died at the age of 84.

According to his publicist, the Canadian singer died peacefully in a hospital in Toronto, without specifying a cause of death.

Clayton Thomas wrote the group’s most famous song, Spinning Wheel, which reached number two in the US and was nominated for three Grammy Awards, winning one.

He was born in England before his family settled in Toronto after World War II. By the time he was 14, he was homeless and spent a good deal of his teenage years in trouble with the law and living in and out of a number of prisons.

In the 1960s, he began to achieve success as a musician and fronted a band called David Clayton Thomas and the Fabulous Shays, later moving to New York.

He recently joined the disbanded and then reformed band Blood, Sweat & Tears and came to the attention of legendary music director Clive Davis who later described Clayton Thomas as an “amazing” musician.

“Blood, Sweat and Tears was an extraordinary mix of people,” Clayton Thomas said in an interview. “We had guys in that band whose background was quite Juilliard. We had other guys who came straight out of Berkeley — hardcore bebop jazz players — and then we had another faction like me who were basically saloon-trained rock ‘n’ roll R&B Telecaster players.”

His first album with the band was a smash hit, selling 10 million copies worldwide, staying on the charts for 109 weeks in the United States, and also winning five Grammy Awards. The single “And When I Die” is also included and it made me so happy.

When Clayton Thomas was asked if he knew the band would be as successful as it became, he said: “I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but yeah. The first time I got in and sang with that band, we were blown away. It was one of those electric things that happens.”

The band went on a controversial state-sponsored tour of several Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War that became the focus of the 2023 documentary What the Hell Happened to the Blood, Sweat, and Tears? The tour arrangement was revealed so that Clayton Thomas could obtain a green card to live and work in the United States.

There were more successful albums including Blood, Sweat & Tears 3 and Blood, Sweat & Tears 4 before Clayton Thomas left the band in 1972 after exhausting himself from life on the road.

“I just kept at it as long as I could do it mentally and physically,” he said.

He released a number of solo albums and launched a 10-piece band in Toronto in the 2000s and toured with it in subsequent years. He also worked with charities for troubled youth and published a memoir in 2010.

A memorial ceremony is scheduled to be held soon.