Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press

After reports Cream‘s Ginger Baker was critically ill, representatives have now confirmed that the drummer has passed away aged 80.

“We are very sad to say that Ginger has passed away peacefully in hospital this morning,” a post on Baker’s official Twitter states. “Thank you to everyone for your kind words over the past weeks.”

Baker is not the first member of the famous trio to pass, Jack Bruce checked out on October 25th, 2014, aged 71.

Baker was a difficult figure, after problems with heroin addiction in the 1970s he was often hostile to friends, bandmates, and members of the press.

He was disdainful of the high regard in which others held him.

“I’ve seen where Cream is sort of held responsible for the birth of heavy metal,” he once told Forbes. “Well, I would definitely go for aborting. I loathe and detest heavy metal. I think it is an abortion.”

“A lot of these guys come up and say, ‘Man, you were my influence, the way you thrashed the drums,’” he continued. “They don’t seem to understand I was thrashing in order to hear what I was playing. It was anger, not enjoyment — and painful. I suffered on stage because of that volume crap. I didn’t like it then, and like it even less now.”

Baker’s own reservations aside, the influence of his work as a percussionist remains unequivocal.