Jimi Jamison, Former Lead Singer for the Band Survivor Has Passed Away at 63 from a Heart Attack

We have lost another from the 80′s music world …

Jimi Jamison, the former lead singer of 80′s band Survivor has passed away at the age of 63 at his home in Memphis, Tennessee from a heart attack. Although Jamison was not the lead singer at the time of Survivor’s biggest hit, Eye of the Tiger, he was in 1983 and after when Survivor released such hits as ‘I Can’t Hold Back,’ ‘The Search is Over,’ ‘High on You,’ ”Burning Heart’ from ‘Rocky IV’ and ‘The Moment of Truth” from ‘The Karate Kid.’Jamison also co-wrote and sang “I’m Always Here,” the theme song from the TV series “Baywatch.”

Jimi Jamison, the former lead singer for the rock bands Cobra and Survivor, died Sunday, his booking agent Sally Irwin confirmed to the Los Angeles Times.

Jamison died of a heart attack at his home in Memphis, Tenn., Irwin said. He was 63.

Jamison was the lead singer for Survivor from the mid-to-late 1980s, creating such hits as “Burning Heart” from “Rocky IV” and “The Moment of Truth” from “The Karate Kid.”

Jamison joined the group at the height of its popularity — the band having just released “Eye of the Tiger” from “Rocky III” — after former lead singer David Bickler left the group because of voice issues.

FACEBOOK – Survivor: The entire Survivor family is very shocked and saddened by the passing of our brother Jimi Jamison. Our thoughts, love and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Survivor – I Can’t Hold Back, Doesn’t this make you miss the 80′s.

Jimi Jamison – Wiki:

Born in rural Mississippi, Jamison moved with his mother to Memphis, Tennessee, the day after his birth, and he considered himself a Memphis native. In addition to honing his vocal abilities in his teens, Jamison taught himself how to play guitar and piano. By middle school, he was playing in a band.[2]

By the late 1970s, he was fronting the local Memphis band, Target, and he went on to become the lead singer of the more well-known band, Cobra in the early 1980s. He would later provide background vocals for successful bands including ZZ Top, Joe Walsh and many others. After the demise of Cobra in 1983/84, he was invited to join Survivor, whose success had been on the wane since their number-one hit, “Eye of the Tiger.” Although he was initially not adamant about fronting what he considered more of a “pop rock” band, which would contrast significantly with the heavy metal stylings of Cobra to which he had become accustomed, Jamison ultimately joined and became Survivor’s new frontman.[3]

Jamison provided an instant spark for Survivor, as his first album with the band, Vital Signs included several massively successful singles, catapulting them back to superstardom. His second album with the band, When Seconds Count, contained a Top 10 hit, “Is This Love?” This album also found Jamison making more songwriting contributions to the band’s output, as he co-wrote four of the record’s songs, including another memorable single, “Man Against the World.” One of the biggest adjustments he had to make performing with Survivor was giving up the right to perform hits by other artists. “Sometimes we’ll start to do an encore and somebody will say, ‘Let’s do a Led Zeppelin song!’” he told Nine-O-One Network Magazine in 1987. “You wanna say ‘Yeah. Yeah!’ And then right at the very last minute you say, ‘Nah, we better do this.’”[4]