RIP Joe Yamanaka of Flower Travellin' Band

Joe with Flower Travellin’ Band during SXSW 2009 (more by Jacob Blickenstaff)
Flower Travelling Band

Popular singer Joe Yamanaka died of lung cancer Sunday morning at a hospital in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture, a music industry source close to him said. He was 64.

Known as the vocalist of the rock band Flower Travellin’ Band, Yamanaka also pursued a solo career as a singer and as an actor, appearing in the 1977 movie “Ningen no Shomei” (Proof of the Man) and singing its theme song, which became a hit tune.

Yamanaka made public in March last year that he had been diagnosed as having lung cancer. -[The Mainichi Daily News]

After a couple of stutters in late 2008, Flower Travellin’ Band made it to the US in 2009 to do what would be their first and last run of reunion dates in the US, including SXSW and Knitting Factory. RIP Joe Yamanaka, you will be missed.