By Best Classic Bands Staff
B.J. Thomas, the award-winning pop, country and gospel singer, died today (May 29, 2021) at his home in Arlington, Texas, at the age of 78, from complications due to stage four lung cancer.
Doctors had first diagnosed Thomas in March. At that time he was receiving treatment in a local health care facility in Texas.
His death was confirmed in a press release from his publicist, Jeremy Westby.
Billy Joe Thomas, born August 7, 1942, in Hugo, Okla., was a five-time Grammy award winner and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, who sold over 70 million albums worldwide, with a total of eight #1 hits on the various Billboard charts and 26 singles on the pop chart throughout his 50-year career.
About “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” Thomas told Best Classic Bands’ Greg Brodsky in an interview, “I was lucky to get it to begin with and now I just feel honoured and blessed that I had that song to sing and on my shows.”
Thomas’ hits include “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “Hooked on a Feeling,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” “Don’t Worry Baby,” “Whatever Happened To Old Fashioned Love” and “New Looks From An Old Lover.”
In 2020, Best Classic Bands asked Thomas if he was contemplating retirement. “I never have thought much about that,” he said at that time. “I’m still singing at a certain level that I think is okay. I’d like to get back next year, by next fall and then do a few more years, and see how it goes.”
