Pete Way, the founding bassist to UFO and former touring bassist to Ozzy Ozbourne, has died at age 69. The news was announced on Facebook.
A statement on the late musician’s Facebook page attributed the cause of death to “sustained life threatening injuries in an accident two months ago.” [He] fought hard until finally succumbing to those injuries at 11.35am BST today. His wife, Jenny, was at his side.”
Way was a founding member of UFO in 1969, playing with the band in varied lineups for 31 years until 2008. He formed UFO with singer Phil Mogg, guitarist Mick Bolton and drummer Andy Parker. Way performed on their first ten studio albums, 1970’s UFO 1 to 1982’s Mechanix, before departing with an idea to form Fastway with Motorhead guitarist “Fast Eddie Clark.”
Way never got to record with Fastway on their 1983 debut, because of label contract problems. After a brief stint with “good friend” Ozzy Ozbourne on the Speak of the Devil tour, he formed his own band, Waysted. Waysted was then the opening act for Ozzy Ozbourne’s Bark at the Moon tour.
Six years later, Pete Way returned to UFO, serving as their bass player for 30 years, before ongoing health issues took him off the road prior to a tour in support of 2009’s The Visitor. Outside of his own band, he was a keen producer for many projects, including popular hard rock acts Twisted Sister and the Cockney Rejects.
He recently finished a solo album, Walking On the Edge, with producer Mike Clink of Guns N’ Roses fame. His biography, A Fast Ride Out Of Here, was published in 2017.
When asked in an interview with Antihero what his hoped legacy would be, Way answered, “Well, I just love to play rock music, you know. I’m old now. I pretend I’m not old but you look back and you go, you can’t, sort of not count the years. I don’t know. I’ve had a unique opportunity to play with some very good people.”
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Vale, Pete.
