I said aloud, ‘I don’t need any of this stuff, the house, the career, the money or the trappings of success. Finally, he desperately kneeled down in his million-dollar mansion on the Pacific Coast in Malibu, California.ĭan writes, “I cried out to God for relief, told Him how miserable I was, what a wretch I’d become and how deeply I longed for Him. But Dan had everything he wanted in life except happiness. After seven years as the highest-earning band for Warner Brothers, America was going to sign a huge new contract. Millions of their albums were sold, including 5 million of their Greatest Hits album, and they will have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He later warned young people about the dangers of substance abuse, discussing his own struggles with drugs and alcohol, which were necessary to survive the intense pressures to succeed.ĭan and his bandmates wrote many hits which most Americans have heard, such as their first, A Horse with No Name, which became #1. So for the next 7 years I lived a double life.”ĭan then plunged into all the vices associated with rock music stardom. I was also terrified because I was sure that to make that proclamation would spell the end of that success. Terror seized my heart when I realized the magnitude of what had happened and what I had committed to. According to Dan’s autobiography, Dan Peek: An American Band, he was saved and baptized at age 12 but lived “a lukewarm Christian existence.” Then at age 19 he prayed, “God, if you’ll make this band a success I’ll use it as a platform to tell others about you, to proclaim you to people everywhere.ĭan writes, “Within nine months…America had our first hit single and album…I knew in my heart that God had heard and honored my prayer. He and two fellow military brats formed America in Britain.ĭan had one of the most incredible Christian testimonies, and his life offers us so many lessons. Dan was the son of an Air Force officer and lived all over the world, even in Sumter, S.C. America was one of the most successful rock bands in the world in the seventies. The circumstances surrounding his departure and the relationships between the former friends remained complex, and a reunion went on to be elusive until his untimely death.Dan Peek, co-founder of the rock group America, died unexpectedly in his sleep on Sunday, July 24, 2011, at the young age of 60 in his home in Farmington, Missouri, from an infection of the membrane surrounding the heart. But I don’t have any terrible regret about it.”ĭan Peek passed away in his sleep due to uremic pericarditis in 2011, putting an end to any further theories about a potential reunion. But, of course, the finality of his death quashed any idea. We were all resigned to our respective paths after he left. Gerry and I just felt… Well, Dan never pursued it either. But between us, it would go back and forth and sputter out. It would be brought up – mostly by the fans, who were passionate about it. “The three of us were never close to having a reunion. The musician expressed himself by saying: That’s why he also mentioned that he did not regret not reuniting the original lineup after his former bandmate’s death. He stated that it was never a serious concept between the band members like it was among the fans because everyone was focused on their respective careers. Similarly, in a 2013 statement shared by Houston Press, Bunnell revealed that nobody, including Dan Peek, attempted to bring the trio back together.
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