Ken Hensley, creative linchpin of rock band Uriah Heep who wrote hits including Easy Livin’ – obituary

Ken Hensley, who has died aged 75, was the beating heart of Uriah Heep, one of the most popular heavy metal acts of the 1970s; organist, songwriter, guitarist, singer and producer, he led the band as they enjoyed a string of hits and conquered America.

Like most of their rock (as opposed to pop) contemporaries, their success was primarily album-based, but they are perhaps most widely known for the single Easy Livin’, which like much of the band’s material was written by Hensley.

Heep guitarist Mick Box recalled of the song’s genesis: “We were driving down to London to fly to America and someone said, ‘This is easy living, isn’t it?’ as a joke, a piss-take. But it resonated with Ken. It wasn’t a song that we over-thought.” Written in 15 minutes, it became a hit in the US and across mainland Europe.

Kenneth William David Hensley was born in Plumstead, south-east London, on August 24 1945, but soon moved with his family to Stevenage. As well the piano, like many of his later musical peers he learnt the guitar from a Bert Weedon manual.

He played in a few local bands before forming the Gods, alongside Greg Lake (later of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer) and Mick Taylor (later of the Rolling Stones), as well as drummer Lee Kerslake (whom Hensley outlived by six weeks) and bassist Paul Newton, both future members of Uriah Heep.

With Hensley on Hammond organ, the Gods supported Cream, recorded two albums and secured a residency at the Marquee. Recruiting the Rebel Rousers’ singer Cliff Bennett they went on to form Toe Fat, who also released a couple of albums.

At the beginning of 1970 Hensley joined Spice, who were looking to his keyboard skills to help them become less bluesy and more “progressive”. They changed their name to Uriah Heep, after Dickens’s model of hypocritical humility, and released their debut album Very ’Eavy ... Very ’Umble, its hard-driving sound fuelled by Hensley’s organ-playing.

The 1971 follow-up, Salisbury, was more clearly “prog”, with a 16-minute title track boasting a 24-piece orchestra, while Demons and Wizards (1972), which reached No 20 in the UK and No 23 in the US, spawned Easy Livin’ and another hit, The Wizard.

“It wasn’t long before we were doing 10,000 seaters right across America, and had Lear jets and limos at every airport. It was an absolutely amazing time,” recalled Box. “Our strength that we could make anything sound great. Ken could bring in a bareboned idea on acoustic guitar, we’d give it the Heep treatment and it’d take on a life of its own. We felt indestructible.”

Hensley made 11 more studio albums with Uriah Heep, meanwhile recording two solo LPs, Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf and Eager To Please. But relations within the band were often difficult, as the original bassist Paul Newton recalled: “Ken… had very definite ideas about what he wanted to do… In some ways it was like the band was a vehicle which Ken used to put his own ideas together.”

Hensley quit in 1980; that year he released his third solo album and moved to the US, going on to join southern rockers Blackfoot, with whom he made two albums. He also turned up on records by W.A.S.P. and others.

He moved to Spain, and recently finished work on a new album, My Book of Answers, due out next year.

Ken Hensley is survived by his wife Monica.

Ken Hensley, born August 24 1945, died November 4 2020