American singer BJ Thomas, here in concert in 2019, died on May 29, 2021, at the age of 78 – Mark Reinstein / REX / SIPA
With his song Raindrops keep fallin ‘on my head, from the soundtrack of the film Butch Cassidy and the Kid, he had won an Oscar and reached the heights of the charts in the United States. American singer BJ Thomas died of lung cancer at his Arlington, Texas home on Saturday at the age of 78, his agents said in a statement.
Winner of five Grammy Awards between 1977 and 1981, he first became known to the public in 1966 with a cover of country singer Hank Williams, I’m so lonesome I could cry, then with the song Hooked on a feeling in 1968. But it is with Raindrops keep fallin ‘on my head, on the soundtrack of Butch Cassidy and the Kid in 1969, he achieved real fame.
A silky and rich voice
“Few artists have left a more memorable mark on the American musical landscape than BJ Thomas,” said his agents on their site. With his silky, rich voice, and his infallible sense of song, Thomas’s vast career has embraced several styles, including country, pop, and gospel. “
After several years of addiction to alcohol and drugs in the 1970s, a “turning point” in his life came in 1976 with his conversion as an evangelical Christian. He then turned to gospel music, and the same year, his album Home where I belong sells over a million copies. BJ Thomas had revealed in March to be suffering from an advanced form of lung cancer.