Australian soul singer Renee Geyer dies aged 69

Renee Geyer was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2005.(AAP: Joe Castro)

Australian soul singer Renee Geyer — who shot to fame in the 1970s and became known for her husky vocals — has died, aged 69. 

In a statement, Geyer's family said the singer passed away from complications following hip surgery.

"While in hospital, it was discovered that Renee also had inoperable lung cancer," the statement read.

"She was in no pain and died peacefully amongst family and friends.

"Naturally we are all utterly devastated."

The Melbourne-born singer rose to fame in the 1970s, spending the first few years of the decade moving between different bands, including jazz-rock group Sun, with whom she recorded the album Sun 1972.

She launched her solo career with a self-titled album in 1973.

"It wasn't a big thing that I could sing, it's just when other people started thinking I was really great," she told ABC Radio Adelaide in an interview last year.

"People's mouths opened agape. I started thinking, 'Well, I must be pretty good.'

"So I just started doing it for a living and it was enjoyable and I kept doing it and people kept asking me back."

Geyer's highest-charting single, Heading in the Right Direction, was released in 1975.

The single — from her third studio album Ready to Deal — peaked at number 31 on the Kent Music Report in 1976.

Starting her career in the 1970s, Renee Geyer worked with a number of bands before branching out as a solo artist.(ABC, file)

Throughout her career, Geyer became a sought-after vocalist, working with Sting, Joe Cocker and Chaka Khan, among others.

"It happened really quickly," she said of her music career in a 1973 interview with the ABC.

"I don't think [I'm confident]. I'm actually quite paranoid.

"But, when I sing something, I forget for that minute and, when I stop singing, I'm paranoid again."

She released an autobiography, Confessions of a Difficult Woman, in 2000, and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2005.

Renee Geyer worked with the likes of Chaka Khan and Sting.(Supplied)

Geyer's life was not without brushes with controversy.

In 2017, she received a good behaviour bond over a 2015 incident where she verbally abused a hotel receptionist.

During the incident, a court was told Geyer used racist language and pushed a stationery holder and EFTPOS machine to the floor.

In 2010, she crashed her car through the window of an optometrist's store in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Elwood.

She had been diagnosed with breast cancer a year earlier and, in 2013, she told the Sydney Morning Herald that she had been affected by medication she had been prescribed as part of her treatment at the time of the crash.

In 2022, Geyer said she felt lucky looking back at her career.

"I'm getting paid to do what I really like to do, and have been for over 50 years, so how lucky am I?" she said.

Article first publish by The ABC, January 17, 2023

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-17/renee-geyer-australian-soul-singer-dies/101862142