Ray Sawyer – the eye-patch wearing singer with Dr Hook & the Medicine Show in the 1970s – has died, aged 81.
The news was broken on the Facebook page of the current incarnation of the band. “Ray Sawyer, an original member of Dr. Hook from 1969-1981, passed away this morning. We send our condolences to his family at this difficult time.”
The band is best known for the song When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman, which was a number one hit in the UK in 1979.
Sawyer joined Dr Hook in 1969, two years after he lost an eye in a car accident.
Despite not being the lead singer, his eye patch – and cowboy hat – meant he was the most easily recognised.
Sawyer, who was born in Chickasaw, Alabama, in 1937, did take lead vocals on one early hit, 1972’s Cover of the Rolling Stone.
