American classic rock giants Boston have lost their singer, Tommy DeCarlo, at the age of 60, according to a statement made by his family.
The vocalist’s children Annie, Talia and Tommy Jr. declared through a shared Facebook post on DeCarlo’s account that this was the end of a battle with brain cancer, and that “he fought with incredible strength and courage right up until the very end”.
DeCarlo was not Boston’s original singer, taking up the reins in 2007 following the suicide of one of the band’s founders, Brad Delp. In an eerie coincidence, it has been revealed this morning that he died on the anniversary of Delp’s passing.
Having discovered the band at the tender age of twelve, DeCarlo stepped in for Delp after an online tape, sent through MySpace, in which he sang an original dedicated to the late singer. Although the song was rejected, Boston personally invited him to sing at their Delp tribute concert, and he became their full time lead singer in its aftermath. Remarkably, at the time he was a 42 year old Home Depot cashier in his native North Carolina and had little experience as a professional musician, going on to serve almost two decades in the American titans of ‘70s rock and write his memoirs in 2021.
Despite his long tenure in the band, he only appeared on one album, 2013’s ‘Life, Love & Hope’, which contained a mixture of new materials and unreleased Delp tracks. That in turn was their first album since 2002 when they released ‘Corporate America’, their last studio album with Delp in the band. DeCarlo did, however, release music with his own project, DECARLO, with the aid of his son. They released two albums of their own, ‘Lightning Strikes Twice’ in 2020, and ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ two years later.
Knowledge of DeCarlo’s problems have been public since September, when, according to his family, during an emergency operation for a brain bleed, “doctors discovered two melanoma masses on his brain and another spot on his lungs. He amazed us by recovering from the surgery and beginning treatment, but before he could complete it, he had another brain bleed and was hospitalised”. They set up a GoFundMe page to aid the singer which exceeded their initial target of $50,000 and going on to raise around $57,000 in total.
At the time of the announcement of his cancer, it was not detailed how this would impact touring, leading DeCarlo to personally issue another statement later in October, declaring that “this was not an easy choice, as performing and sharing music with all of you around the world has been one of the greatest joys of my life, but right now, it’s important that I take the time I need to recover and get back to feeling my best, so that when I return to the stage, I can give you everything I’ve got”.
