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Iconic singer/songwriter Tucker Zimmerman has died at the age of 84. The American star and his wife of 56 years Marie-Claire Lambert, perished in a house fire at their home in Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse, Liège, in Belgium on Saturday, January 17. The couple's cause of death was asphyxiation. One of their neighbours alerted emergency services to the blaze, but when responders arrived, the building was engulfed in flames. A medical examiner and forensic scientist later confirmed both Tucker and Marie-Claire lost their lives, and the fire is being treated as accidental.

Legendary music producer Tony Visconti shared the news in a social media post paying tribute to the star. "I just received tragic news from Quanah Zimmerman, the son of singer and songwriter Tucker Zimmerman. Tucker and his wonderful wife, Marie-Claire, perished in a house fire yesterday. I am stunned. I met Tucker and Marie-Claire in London, 1967. Tucker was a master musician and songwriter from San Francisco. His songs were biting and revolutionary. I produced his first album, Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman," he wrote.

"We had met up several times over the decades and made a podcast recently. He was one of my oldest friends. David Bowie adored him.

"Tucker played a set of his songs at the Three Tuns in Beckenham, Kent, and David gave him a proper psychedelic light show during David's Arts Lab night.

"If you haven't heard Tucker's music, it was like a very dark version of Bob Dylan. I'm all choked up."

In a 2003 article for Vanity Fair Bowie cited 1969's Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman as one of his favourite albums.

"Now there's a title with cool clarity. The guy's way too qualified for folk, in my opinion. Degrees in theory and composition, studying under composer Henry Onderdonk, Fulbright scholarship, and he wants to be Dylan. A waste of an incendiary talent?" he wrote.

"Not in my opinion. I always found this album of stern, angry compositions enthralling, and often wondered what ever happened to him.

"Tucker, an American, was one of the first artists to be produced by my friend and co-producer Tony Visconti, also an American, after they found each other in London. I wonder? Ah, yup, he's got a website. Lives in Belgium. Look him up."

Tucker's most recent album, Dance of Love, was released in September 2024.