Former URIAH HEEP Legend KEN HENSLEY - "When I Look Back How I Lived In The Early 1970s, It’s A Wonder I Survived"
Former Uriah Heep legend Ken Hensley is featured in a new interview with The Jerusalem Post discussing his long music career, now leading up to his 70th birthday. An excerpt from the story is available below:
Back when I was 25 – young, rich and stupid – I never expected to make it to 40. Because I thought 40 was old.”
On the cusp of turning 70, Ken Hensley chortled heartily into the phone during a conversation from his home in Spain last week. It’s a laugh of achievement at having survived the wealth, drugs and fame of his youth as co-founder of 1970s British hard rock veterans Uriah Heep. And it’s a laugh of gratitude, thinking about what could have been.
“I’m one of the lucky ones, and I’ve never stopped being thankful for it. I’m very conscious of the fact that so many of my contemporaries didn’t make it,” said the lanky, long-haired keyboardist/guitarist in a voice that recalled a more lucid Ozzy Osbourne. “When I look back how I lived in the early 1970s, it’s a wonder I survived.”
Hensley was alluding to a nasty cocaine habit he had developed during his decade-long tenure with Heep beginning in 1970. Over the course of 13 albums like the flagship Demons and Wizards (much of it written by Hensley), the band’s fusion of progressive, art rock and metal – heavy on fantasy, swirling keyboard and reverent bombast – propelled them into the rock royalty pantheon inhabited by the likes of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.
While history has not treated the band as kindly as some of its contemporaries, ongoing versions of Uriah Heep led by guitarist Mick Box have continued as a recording and touring unit, selling out arenas and theaters regularly around the world. However, Hensley took a different path on his road to recovery.
“By the time I left Heep in 1980, I was so disillusioned with the band and the music – and even more disillusioned with my cocaine addiction,” he said. “I was determined to get rid of it, but I knew it was not going to happen in England where my co-conspirators were. I needed a complete break.”
After a half-hearted attempt at a solo career, Hensley moved to the US where he joined a Florida hard rock band Blackfoot for two albums.
“I was just trying to fill that huge gap that was left by leaving Heep. I dedicated 10 years to that project and that’s a big chunk of time,” he said. “I moved to the US to basically get rid of my drug habit and get my feet back on the ground. I thought it might take two or three years but it ended up taking closer to 15.”
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