Greg Kihn, ‘Jeopardy’ Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 75

Greg Kihn, the Baltimore-born singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for the hit “Jeopard,” has died. He was 75.

According to a post on his website, Kihn died on Aug. 13 after struggling with Alzheimer’s disease.

“Beyond the world of music and radio, Greg was renowned as a great storyteller and novelist with six published novels and a multitude of short stories,” notes a statement on his site. “He had a unique hobby of breeding rare praying mantis and he also spent time and raised money for Operation Care and Comfort.”

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Kihn started his music career in 1976 with the band Greg Kihn Band. His first two albums didn’t chart but by his third (and first of many LPs with a title that included a pun on his name), 1979’s Next of Kihn, he started to find some broader success with his music.

A pair of singles – “Remember” in 1978 and 1981’s “Sheila” – stalled just outside of the Top 100, but with 1981’s “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)” he broke into the Top 40 for the first time with a No. 15 hit.

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But it was with 1983’s “Jeopardy,” a song that benefitted from much MTV airplay during the music network’s earliest years, that took Kihn and his four-piece band into the Top 10. The song climbed to No. 2 and became his biggest and best-known hit, thanks to the conceptual video that featured Kihn as a groom terrorized by otherworldly creatures.

Over the next three years, Kihn placed six more singles in the Top 100 or just outside of it, some with his band and some released under his solo name (like 1986’s “Love and Rock and Roll,” his last chart entry).

Among his most popular albums, Rockihnroll (1981), Kihntinued (1982) and Kihnspiracy (1983) all reached the Top 40.

In 1996 Kihn became a disc jockey at San Jose’s KUFX and soon after that published his first novel, Horror Show, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. He penned several other horror books over the years.

In July, Kihn hinted on Facebook that he was retiring. “After so many years of touring as well as doing radio shows from 3 a.m. -3 p.m. for 15 years, it’s finally time I get to chill out,” he wrote. “I’m enjoying sleeping in, watching movies, listening to music and my favorite thing to do is just spend time with my family.”

The announcement of his death noted that a “public celebration of life concert for fans and fellow musicians will be announced in the near future.”