Blue Oyster Cult Founder Allen Lanier Passes Away

posted in: Music News • Rock

We hate to start the day on a sad note, but this story simply could not wait.

Reports are coming in this morning that Blue Oyster Cult founder Allen Lanier has passed away due to complications from C.O.P.D. (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). He was 67.

A message posted earlier today by Blue Oyster Cult’s frontman Eric Bloom reads:

My great friend Allen Lanier has passed. I’ll miss the guy even though we hadn’t spoken in a while. He was so talented as a musician and a thinker. He read voraciously, all kinds of things, especially comparative religion. We drove for years together, shared rooms in the early days. We partied, laughed, played. All BOC fans and band members will mourn his death. Ultimately smoking finally got to him. He had been hospitalized with C.O.P.D. It was Allen who heard some old college band tapes of mine and suggested I get a shot as the singer in 1968. A lot of great memories, over 40 years worth. Maybe he’s playing a tune with Jim Carroll right now

Blue Oyster Cult started in 1967 and went on to release a string of hits. Lanier left the group briefly between 1985 and 1987, but otherwise played with them the entirety of his adult life. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.