Dr Hook’s patched singer Ray Sawyer has died at the age of 81.
Ray’s wife Linda announced the news on Facebook saying “My heart is broken; Ray passed away this morning peacefully in his sleep. We thank you all for your continued support and prayers. Ray loved you all”.
Ray Sawyer was a founding member of Dr Hook & the Medicine Show. He formed the band in New Jersey in 1968. Singer Dennis Locorriere, who still tours using the Dr Hook brand, joined soon after.
Sawyer lost his right eye in a car accident in 1967. He wore an eye-patch. It inspired the name Dr Hook (as a reference to Captain Hook from Peter Pan).
Dr Hook & the Medicine Show was signed by Clive Davis to CBS Records and broke worldwide with their song ‘Sylvia’s Mother’. The song reached no 5 in the US and no 1 in Australia in 1972.
Dr Hook then had a million-seller with ‘Cover of the Rolling Stone’. Rolling Stone published Jann Wenner sent 16-year old Cameron Crowe to interview the band. They then made the cover of Rolling Stone. However, the song failed to chart in the UK because the BBC refused to play it because the “Rolling Stone’ reference was considered advertising.
In 1975, the band lost ‘… & the Medicine Show’ and became just Dr Hook. They signed with Capitol Records and would go on to have a further 11 Top 40 hits in Australia including the number one hit ‘Walk Right In’.
In 1976, Dr Hook released the song ‘A Little Bit More’ Australia’s Tex Perkins considered it so creepy that he included it in 2008 album ‘Tex Perkins and the Ladyboyz’.
Perkins maintained the opening lines suggested date rape. “When your body’s had enough of me and I’m laying right out on the floor/When you think I’ve loved you all I can I’m gonna love you a little bit more”.
Australia became Dr Hook’s biggest market. In 1982, they paid tribute to Australia with their cover of the traditional Australian folk song ‘The Wild Colonial Boy’.
Ray Sawyer left Dr Hook for a solo career in 1982. Locorriere has ownership of the name. He played touring the Dr Hook 50th Anniversary world tour during 2019.
Sawyer licenced the name from Locorriere and toured as Ray Sawyer of Dr Hook between 1988 and 2015.
Linda Sawyer told fans her husband had fallen ill on Christmas Eve. “To all my family friends and fans of Dr Hook. Ray is currently in the hospital in ICU and we are asking for prayers,” she posted.
Dennis Locorriere told Rolling Stone, “Although I hadn’t been in contact with Ray for many, many years it does not erase the fact that we were once close friends and shared an important time in both our lives. Deep condolences go out to his family at what must be a difficult time.”
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