Fabulous Flip Sides In Memoriam â John Lawton of Luciferâs Friend and Uriah Heep
Remembering vocalist John Lawton, co-founder of Luciferâs Friend, and Uriah Heep member from 1976-1979
Author:
John Lawton, photo courtesy of lucifersfriend.com
In 1969, vocalist John Lawton moved from England to Germany after meeting his future wife Iris there and being encouraged by the music scene. In 1970, he co-founded the German rock band Lucifer’s Friend and debuted with their self-titled album and first single, “Ride the Sky,” with a similarity to Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” from that year. In his 2019
Goldmine interview Lawton said, “It turned out to be a classic, and compared to ‘Immigrant Song,’ we came first. We had the riff before ‘Immigrant Song.’ It’s been a bone of contention throughout the years, but it has been proven eventually that we got that before Zeppelin.”