John Wetton

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John Wetton
Background information
Birth name	John Kenneth Wetton
Born	(1949-06-12)12 June 1949 Willington, Derbyshire, England
Origin	Bournemouth, Dorset, England
Died	31 January 2017(2017-01-31) (aged 67) Bournemouth, Dorset, England
Genres	Progressive rock hard rock pop rock jazz fusion classic rock AOR
Occupations	Musician singer songwriter producer
Instruments	Bass vocals guitar keyboards
Years active	1965–2017
Labels	E.G. Atlantic Geffen Universal Island Eagle Avalon EMI King Records Frontiers
Formerly of	The Corvettes the Palmer-James Group Tetrad Ginger Man Mogul Thrash Renaissance Family King Crimson Roxy Music Uriah Heep U.K. Jack-Knife Wishbone Ash Steve Hackett Band Asia Qango

John Kenneth Wetton (12 June 1949 – 31 January 2017) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter.^[1] Although he was left-handed, he was known as a skilled right-handed bass player and had a booming baritone voice.^[2] He was a member of the band Family in 1971 for a short time, before joining King Crimson in 1972.^[3] After the breakup of King Crimson at the end of 1974, Wetton played in a number of progressive rock and hard rock bands, including Roxy Music (1974–1975), Uriah Heep (1975–1976), U.K. (1977–1980), and Wishbone Ash (1980–1981).^[1]

In 1981, he co-founded Asia as lead vocalist and principal songwriter, which was considered to be a supergroup.^[1] Their debut, self-titled album was released in 1982, selling ten million copies worldwide and becoming Billboard magazine's number one album of 1982.^[4] Wetton later formed the duo Icon with his Asia bandmate and songwriting partner Geoff Downes, and he also had a successful solo career.