Celebrity Deathwatch: Glenn Hughes, Village People "Biker", 50

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

http://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/17/obit.hughes.ap/index.html

Glenn Hughes, biker in Village People, dead at 50
March 17, 2001
Web posted at: 9:12 AM EST (1412 GMT)


NEW YORK (AP) -- Glenn Hughes, a singer who performed as the mustachioed,
leather-clad biker in the disco band the Village People, has died of lung
cancer. He was 50.

Hughes, who died on March 4, was one of six men who formed the Village
People, a disco group that capitalized on images of the American male
popular in New York's gay nightclubs.

The group, which was the brainchild of producer Jacques Morali, featured men
dressed as an Indian, a soldier, a construction worker, a police officer, a
cowboy and Hughes' character, a biker.

Hughes was working as a toll collector when friends dared him to respond to
an advertisement seeking "gay singers and dancers, very good-looking and
with mustaches."

The band was an improbable success, expertly balancing a campy and
suggestive image that was never too suggestive for the mass market.

The band released its first single, "San Francisco (You've Got Me)," in
1977. It followed the next year with its first hit, "Macho Man." The band
then produced a string of hits, including "Y.M.C.A.," "In the Navy" and "Go
West."

Collectively the Village People sold 65 million albums and singles.

Although disco fell out of fashion in the 1980s, Hughes stayed with the band
until 1996, when he left to sing in Manhattan cabarets.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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