Nicely, this sucks. It’s getting more durable and more durable to must maintain reporting on key steel figures leaving us for what’s hopefully a greater past. Sadly, this time round, we’ve sadly needed to say goodbye to Marcie Free, the frontwoman of Unruly Baby and vocalist in King Kobra and Sign. She was 71-years-old.
Free’s dying was confirmed by her Unruly Baby drummer bandmate Jay Schellen in a Fb publish yesterday, October 24:
“I simply couldn’t discover the phrases final night time after I heard the information that my loving pal and bandmate in Unruly Baby Marcie Free has handed. That is heartbreaking.
“Bruce [Gowdy, guitar], Man [Allison, keyboards], Larry [Antonino, bass] all of which I maintain expensive as household are shattered for the lack of our Marcie. We started UC collectively in 1992 and continued our friendship and music making all through these years to at the present time.
“Marcie was a marvel to behold. A voice that had no limits and no equal, a very singular expertise and probably the most open and delightful souls I’ve ever identified.
“I’m gutted and might’t say rather more.
“To my bandmates, Bruce, Man, Larry, I really like you guys, like to you too Marcie, you at all times had been an Angel, now you’ve gotten your wings.”
Carmine Appice, Free’s bandmate in King Kobra, additionally took to social media to specific his disappointment:
“I’m so unhappy that my good pal Marcie/Mark Free handed away. What an incredible particular person with the best voice. We’ve got been pals since 1982 and we had been nonetheless pals to at the present time.
“I don’t know the way she handed. I talked to her simply 2-3 weeks in the past and he or she appeared okay. I’m actually sorry about her passing. The work she did as Mark Free with KING KOBRA was superb.
“We’re doing a brand new KING KOBRA music referred to as ‘Possibilities’, an AIR SUPPLY music. I wish to dedicate it to Marcie as a result of we began KING KOBRA collectively, and that is additionally a part of her legacy.
“RIP my good pal. I’m so sorry you’re gone.”
Free is iconic within the steel world for a number of causes, one in every of which was her popping out as transgender again in 1993. As a result of persons are shitty and suppose you may’t nonetheless make superior shit or be an extremely proficient and brutal musician, her profession took a extreme hit, with prior business connections and collaborators shunning her as soon as she transitioned.
Beneath her deadname Mark Free, she did lead vocals on the primary two King Kobra albums Able to Strike and Thrill of a Lifetime. After leaving the band, she launched two data with the band Sign—1989’s Loud & Clear and 2000’s Sign Dwell. She then ventured out right into a solo profession, releasing Lengthy Manner from Love underneath her deadname in 1993, and Tormented as herself in 1996.
Relaxation in energy, queen. Your affect is unmatched.
