Lead singer of King Crimson, ELP founder Greg Lake dies
LONDON — Greg Lake, the prog-rock pioneer who co-founded King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, has died. He was 69.
His manager, Stewart Young, said in a statement that Lake died Wednesday after “a long and stubborn battle with cancer.”
In the late 1960s, Lake founded King Crimson with guitarist Robert Fripp. The band pioneered the sprawling, ambitious genre that came to be known as progressive rock.
He went on to form ELP with keyboardist Keith Emerson and drummer Carl Palmer. With Lake as vocalist and guitarist, ELP impressed the crowds at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, and released six platinum-selling albums characterized by songs of epic length, classical influence and ornate imagery.
Emerson died in March from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Santa Monica, California.
