Ray Collins Dead: Mothers of Invention Singer and Frank Zappa Cohort Dies at 75

Ray Collins, singer and co-founder of the Mothers of Invention, has died at the age of 74.

According to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin [via Billboard] Collins was admitted to Pomona Valley Hospital in Claremont, Calif. on Dec. 18 after suffering a massive heart attack. Sadly, doctors took him off life support on Saturday, Dec. 22.

Collins started his musical career playing in doo-wop bands, and hired the mustachioed Frank Zappa to play guitar in his band the Soul Giants in 1964. In a short while, the band formed into Mothers of Invention. By 1966, they had signed with Verve records and released the avant-garde full-length Freak Out!.

The singer stayed on for the followup record Absolutely Free but left the band when too much comedy entered the mix. "Too much comedy, too much making fun of stuff," Collins once told the Daily Bulletin. "I just wanted to make beautiful music. I was raised on Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole."

After several performances with Zappa in the 1970s, Collins effectively quit the music business opting for a more solitary life. He spent several years driving a taxi in Los Angeles and washing dishes in Hawaii. The singer spent the last eight years living out of a van, collecting social security and songwriting royalties.

Collins was found unresponsive in his van by a local automotive mechanic on Dec. 18. Information on family survivors has not been released.