Overview
- The songwriter's death in hospice Monday, March 23, was confirmed by his children and his label after a tribute from friend Billy Vera.
- No official cause of death has been disclosed by the family or Train Wreck Records.
- He wrote Wild Thing and Angel of the Morning, songs that became standards through hits by the Troggs, Merrilee Rush and Juice Newton, with Jimi Hendrix’s Monterey Pop performance cementing Wild Thing in rock history.
- He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016 and later founded the independent label Train Wreck Records, with the family requesting donations to the Metropolitan Golf Association Caddie Scholarship Fund.
- In recent years he wrote and recorded through throat cancer treatment and after the June 2025 death of his wife, Joan Carole Frey, releasing new albums that drew on those experiences.