English singer-songwriter, Reg Presley, died Monday night at his home in Andover, England, after a year-long battle with lung cancer. He was 71.
His daughter Karen told the music website WENN that she, her brother and her mother were with Presley when he died.
“He passed away peacefully at home and myself, my brother and our mother were with him. We’re absolutely heartbroken,” she said.
Karen Presley is a former beauty therapist, she is currently 49 years old. She has a younger brother, 44-year-old Jason, a former air steward. Their mother Brenda met Reg at a local hop.
Presley was singer of the influential English garage-rock band the Troggs, which had seven huge its in the mid-1960s, including “Wild Thing”, in the early days of the British invasion started by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Presley founded the Troggs in the 1960s and they kept touring until his lung cancer was diagnosed just over a year ago. The singer had announced his retirement in January 2012.
He had a strong interest in crop circles, paranormal activity, and UFOs. Reg had files at home on UFO sightings, and spent many a long nights camping out on the hillsides in rolling Wiltshire, watching the skies.
The Troggs, all from the Andover area, had several other big hits, including “Love is All Around” and “With a Girl Like You.” They faded in the 1970s but their songs were revived in the 1990s when REM and Wet Wet Wet released covers of the Troggs’ “Love Is All Around.”
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