Alan White, the longtime drummer for the British progressive-rock band Yes and also played with John Lennon and George Harrison, died today at his home in Seattle following a brief illness, his family has announced. He was 72.
“Throughout his life and six-decade career,” White’s family posted on Facebook, “Alan was many things to many people: a certified rock star to fans around the world, band mate to a select few, and gentleman and friend to all who met him.”
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Although best known for his drumming with Yes — a band he joined in 1972 and with whom he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 — White also played with the John Lennon & Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band in 1969, performing on the smash Lennon singles “Imagine” and “Instant Karma (We All Shine On).” He performed with Lennon, Ono and Eric Clapton in the famous Live Peace in Toronto concert.
Born in Pelton, County Durham, England on June 14, 1949, White began piano lessons at age 6, according to his family, and began playing the drums at 12. Throughout the 1960s, he performed with such bands as The Downbeats, The Gamblers, Billy Fury, Alan Price Big Band, Bell and Arc, Terry Reid, Happy Magazine (later called Griffin) and Balls with Trevor Burton (The Move) and Denny Laine (Wings).
In 1968, he joined Ginger Baker’s Air Force, a new post-Blind Faith group that also included Steve Winwood. The following year, he received a call from Lennon asking to join the Plastic Ono Band, beginning an association that would include the landmark Imagine album and its title track along with the songs “Jealous Guy” and “How Do You Sleep at Night.”
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The Lennon association led to an introduction to George Harrison, who invited White to perform on the landmark 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass, including the No. 1 single “My Sweet Lord.” White subsequently worked with many artists for the Apple label, including Billy Preston, Rosetta Hightower and Doris Troy.
White joined Yes on July 27, 1972, and, his family notes, had only three days to learn the music before the group opened its U.S. tour before 15,000 fans in Dallas. With the death of founding member Chris Squire in 2015, White became the band’s longest continuously serving member.
White’s first album with Yes was 1973’s Tales from Topographic Oceans, which topped the UK chart and made the U.S. Top 10. He and the band followed during the next decade with Relayer, Going for the One, Tormato — all of which made the Top 10 in the U.S. and UK and went gold or platinum. The band’s 1980 disc Drama reached No. 18 stateside.
After a live set and compilation album, the band scored its best-selling U.S. album with 90125, which spawned the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” The set went triple-platinum and was a mainstay on American FM rock stations — and MTV — with subsequent singles “Changes,” “It Can Happen” and “Leave It.” The 1987 follow-up album Big Generator went platinum and featured a pair of FM smash singles in “Love Will Find a Way” and “Rhythm of Love.”
Yes remains a staple on classic rock radio.
He is survived by his wife of 40 years Rogena “Gigi” White, daughters Jesse and Cassi, and other extended family.
Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.