Ex-King Crimson Drummer Jamie Muir Dead at 82

The progressive rock world lost a truly interesting drummer and percussionist after former King Crimson member Jamie Muir passed away. He was 82 years old.

Muir had been a member of the iconic prog rock band from 1972 to 1973, during which point he was featured on the band’s album Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. After leaving the band, he moved to Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland to become a Buddhist monk.

However, by 1980 he came back to play music in London, accruing album credits with artists like Derek Bailey, Evan Parker and Paul Rogers, Company, and Laurie Scott Baker.

Muir’s passing just a couple months after the death of the band’s co-founding member Peter Sinfield. Longtime King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, who’d played with the late percussionist back in the day, confirmed Muir’s death in a statement.

“Jamie was the drummer/percussionist with whom I worked on the King Crimson album Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973). He had a volcanic effect on me, professionally and personally, in the brief time we were together many years ago – an effect which I still remember half a century later. I’m sorry we lost touch, but his departure from our working relationship was so sudden and unexpected, I sort of assumed he didn’t want anything more to do with me and my colleagues in King Crimson!

“He was a lovely, artistic man, childlike in his gentleness. There was probably a dark side underneath. It could be be glimpsed as he climbed the PA stacks in a wolf’s fur jacket, blood (from a capsule) pouring from his mouth, on a rainy Thursday night in Preston, Lancs., to hurl chains across the stage at his drumkit. One of these Robert Fripp will tell you, only narrowly missed him.

“His conversations with Jon Anderson at my 1973 wedding party, in Jon’s words, ‘changed my life’. Jamie also changed mine.

“I consider it a privilege to have known, and benefitted from the company of, a man of such quiet power, even briefly. He struck me as one of those about whom one might truthfully say he was a beautiful human being. He will be much missed. Goodbye, Jamie.”

We at MetalSucks want to offer our condolences to Muir’s friends and loved ones during this difficult time.