RIP Rick Davies of Supertramp. He was 81.

If you grew up in Winnipeg as I did, it was almost a rule that you were issued Supertramp’s Crime of the Century album on your tenth birthday. Just as with Slurpees from 7-11, Winnipeg was the Supertramp capital of the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if flags in the city were at half-mast today in honour of co-founder Rick Davies.

Davies had been very ill with cancer for the better part of a decade. He died yesterday (September 7) at his home in Long Island at the age of 81 after dealing with multiple myeloma, a disease affecting bone marrow, since 2025.

Rick was a co-founder of Supertramp. Through an ad in a music paper he placed in 1969, he found Roger Hodgson, who became his songwriting partner in the band. Dougie Thomson, Bob Siebenberg, and John Helliwell soon joined them. With funding from a Dutch fan who just happened to be a millionaire, the band released a couple of albums that didn’t do well, before releasing Crime of the Century in 1973.

With their Lennon-McCartney-style approach to songwriting, Supertramp went on a tear through the rest of the 70s and into the 80s. The height of their success came with Breakfast in America in 1979, which has since sold about 30 million copies worldwide.

Songwriting was largely evenly split between Davies and Hodgson. Rick contributed songs like “Bloody Well Right” and “Goodbye Stranger.” Co-writes with Hodgson included “School,” “Rudy,” “The Logical Song,” “Give a Little Bit,” “Breakfast in America,” and “Take the Long Way Home.” They were nominated for a couple of Grammys. They’re also one of the few bands with two albums that sold more than a million copies in Canada (Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America.)

You might also remember this song (a Hodgson composition) from the Even in the Quietest Moments album being used as the theme for CTV’s newsmagazine show, W5.

But as often happens, there were tensions within Supertramp and after 1982’s …Famous Last Words, Hodgson left the band to go solo. Davies, meanwhile, kept the band together until 2002. Davies then did some solo work, sometimes under the name Ricky and the Rockets.

There were occasional reunions, including a planned 25-date European tour in 2015, but by this time, Davies’ health issues had begun. That tour was canceled. Meanwhile, tussles over royalties between Hodgson and the rest of the band continued. The latest salvos were fired just last month.

The band released this statement.

“As co-writer, along with partner Roger Hodgson, he was the voice and pianist behind Supertramp’s most iconic songs, leaving an indelible mark on rock music history,” reads a statement on the band’s social media pages. “His soulful vocals and unmistakable touch on the Wurlitzer became the heartbeat of the bands’ sound (sic).”

It continued, “After facing serious health challenges, which kept him unable to continue touring as Supertramp, he enjoyed performing with his hometown buds as Ricky and the Rockets. Rick’s music and legacy continue to inspire many and bears testament to the fact that great songs never die, they live on.”

Rick is survived by his wife, Sue, whom he married in 1977. She’s also served as Supertramp’s manager since 1984.