Andy Fraser, who co-wrote All Right Now when he was the teenage bassist for Free, has died in California at age 62.
Fraser had been living in the California desert community of Temecula, where he died on Monday, the Riverside County coroner said in a statement. The cause of death is not yet known and remains under investigation. Fraser had previously survived both cancer and Aids.
At age 15, the London-born Fraser was briefly a member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. The group functioned as a training ground for young British rockers including Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor.
Within a year, Fraser became a founding member of Free. The band’s most prominent member was singer and guitarist Paul Rodgers, who would also go on to front Bad Company and the Firm.
The band’s biggest hit by far was 1970’s All Right Now, which remains one of the defining hits of classic rock radio. Fraser also produced the track and plays a bass solo on it. The song is a staple at sports stadiums. The marching bands of the Stanford University and University of Southern California American football teams play it at virtually every game.
Fraser kept playing music for most of his life, but he would never equal the success he had as a teenager with Free, which broke up in 1972.
He and Rodgers took the stage together to play All Right Now at Woodstock ’94, the revival of the classic music festival.
