Three Dog Night founding member Chuck Negron dead at 83

Chuck Negron, founding member of Three Dog Night, has died at the age of 83. According to Negron’s representative, he passed away Monday at home in Studio City, California, “surrounded by his loving family.”

No cause of death was revealed, although the statement from his rep noted he battled chronic COPD for three decades and heart failure in his final months.

Negron, along with Danny Hutton and the late Cory Wells, formed Three Dog Night in 1967, with Michael Allsup, Jimmy Greenspoon, Joe Schermie and Floyd Sneed later joining the band. They went on to become one of the most successful bands of the ’60s and ’70s, landing 21 Billboard top-40 hits between 1969 and 1975.

Negron sang lead vocals on many of their iconic songs, including the #1 hit “Joy To the World (Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog),” and the top-five hits “One (Is the Loneliest Number)” and “Old Fashioned Love Song.”

After a decadeslong battle with drug abuse, Negron got clean in 1991 and launched a solo career, releasing seven albums, the last of which was 2017’s Negron Generations. He recounted his life story, as well as his battle with addiction, in the memoir Three Dog Nightmare, released in 1999.

Hutton and Allsup are the last two surviving original members of Three Dog Night. While Negron and Hutton had been estranged since Negron’s final departure from the band in the ’80s, they reunited last year.

“When Chuck left the band 40 years ago, we rarely spoke and lost touch for much of that time. Five months ago, his wife Ami called to tell me he was very sick, and I decided I should go see him,” Hutton wrote in a post on Three Dog Night’s Facebook page. “When I arrived at his house, we hugged, cried, reminisced, and shared many stories. In that moment, we realized how much time had been lost by not being in each other’s lives. It was a beautiful and deeply meaningful reunion.”

Paying tribute to Negron, he noted, “Besides being a phenomenal singer, Chuck was a good college basketball player and had a great sense of humor. I will always be grateful for the music we made together.”

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