Robert Palmer: Inside the ‘Addicted To Love’ singer’s tragic death

5 September 2024, 14:54

He was one of rock music's most suave customers.

Robert Palmer brought a degree of sophistication to the worlds of pop and rock and was renowned for his sartorial elegance as much as his music.

Blending his musical influences which ranged from blue-eyed soul, jazz, rock, reggae, and blues, Palmer became one of the stars of the 1980s.

Throughout his four-decade career which started in the seventies, the singer scored a series of top-ten hits both at home in his native UK and the US.

Starting out in soul band Vinegar Joe, he went solo and achieved success the following decades as well as forming supergroup The Power Station with Duran Duran brothers Andy and John Taylor as well as Chic drummer Tony Thompson which introduced him to the MTV generation.

• The 20 greatest music videos from the 1980s
• The 100 greatest songs of the 1980s, ranked
• When David Bowie called out MTV for not playing black artists during 1983 interview
• The Story of... 'Man! I Feel Like a Woman' by Shania Twain

For those who weren't particularly familiar with his work, that all changed in 1986 with the release of his most iconic song.

'Addicted To Love' became one of the anthems of the decade, coming to "epitomise the glamour and excesses of the 1980s", and instantly became a symbol of pop culture at the time - it was even later pastiched by Shania Twain in her 1997 music video for 'Man! I Feel Like A Woman'.

But in 2003, the Yorkshire-born star died suddenly at the age of just 54. So what happened?

Though Robert Palmer was a frequent presence on rock radio throughout the seventies, eighties and nineties, he certainly wasn't a typical rockstar.

When bands at the time were donning leather jackets, skin-tight jeans and ripped t-shirts, Palmer preferred to go down the sartorial route, almost always dressed to the nines in British or Italian designer suits.

This certainly made him stand out from the crowd - the music video for 'Addicted To Love' is a case in point, appearing next to elegantly dressed high fashion models.

In 1990, Rolling Stone magazine even dubbed him the best-dressed male artist solidifying status as one of music's most dapper characters.

And, like Roxy Music's similarly smart singer Bryan Ferry, Palmer was one of the few rockstars to grace the cover of GQ magazine.

But like rockstars of the era, Palmer also possessed a penchant for excess, especially when it came to cigarettes and alcohol.

Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love (Official Music Video)

He was renowned for being a heavy smoker - his distinctively soulful voice is often attributed to his chain-smoking and love of whiskey.

It's been reported that he would easily smoke sixty cigarettes in a day.

Music journalists often reported that Palmer would turn up to interviews with a pack of Dunhill cigarettes and a bottle of single malt which he'd make his way through in its entirety.

There aren't any tales of rock 'n' roll excesses when it comes to Robert Palmer, as he was always deemed a courteous and charming individual to interview.

The same could be said for Palmer when he took to the stage to perform night after night.

"The excesses of rock ‘n’ roll never really appealed to me," he told The Telegraph. "I couldn't see the point of getting up in front of a lot of people when you weren’t in control of your wits."

After relocating to Switzerland in 1986, he became a collector of expensive wine, amassing a substantial collection in his wine cellar.

Strangely enough, however, just two weeks before his death, Robert Palmer was issued with a clean bill of health.

In September of 2003, Robert Palmer took part in an interview with journalist Christine Talbot at Ronnie Scott's club in London's Soho.

The interview was set to be part of a retrospective, perhaps quite ironically, about Palmer's career in music for Yorkshire Television, the county where he was born.

Though just two days after the interview took place, Robert Palmer died. He was just 54 years old.

The musician was visiting Paris with his young girlfriend Mary Ambrose, and whilst staying at the luxurious Warwick Hotel near the Champ-Elysees, he collapsed and died of a massive heart attack on 26th September 2003.

Robert Palmer - Last Interview

Palmer's manager Mick Cater broke the news that he had died at 02:00 in the early hours, and that his partner Mary Ambrose wasn't with him at the time of death.

"The cause of death is not on the certificate, but we will be told early next week," Cater said. "We have no reason to believe he died from anything other than a massive heart attack."

"Robert had no history of heart problems. Only two weeks ago he had a medical check-up which gave him a clean bill of health."

The singer fell in love with his home in Lugano, Switzerland, and always claimed to have wanted to be buried there.

After organising the funeral, it was decided by the family that survived him - who all lived in England - that he would be buried in London.

His closest friends and family were invited to the funeral, and are the only people that know the location of Palmer's grave. A memorial service was held in Lugano also.

Upon hearing news of his death, Duran Duran paid tribute to Palmer, issuing a statement saying: "He was a very dear friend and a great artist. This is a tragic loss to the British music industry."