I play the drums like I drive crazy: the epic life and tragic death of Cozy Powell [Video]

Cozy Powell was one of rock’s greatest and most travelled drummers, playing with the likes of Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Peter Green, Brian May, the reunited ELP and countless others. He sadly died in a car accident on April 5, 1999, at the age of 50. A year after his death, Classic Rock talked to many of his friends and colleagues about the man who added huge firepower to whoever he was playing with.

As Sunday April 5, 1998, drew to a close a Saab 9000 careered across the M4 near Bristol and smashed into the central reservation. It was later estimated that the car’s occupant, a 50-year-old man, had been travelling at over 90 miles per hour at the time of the collision. It was also widely rumoured that he had been using his cellular phone to talk to his girlfriend when a tyre blew up. Reportedly, the driver’s final words were: …