Ian McDonald, Founding Member of Foreigner and King Crimson, Dies at 75
Chris Willman Music WriterIan McDonald, a multi-instrumentalist who was part of the founding lineups of the art-rock group King Crimson in the late 1960s and the more commercial Foreigner in the mid-’70s, died Wednesday at age 75. No cause of death was immediately given but a spokesperson said he “passed away peacefully” surrounded by family at his home in New York City.Among the hits he played on were such platinum Foreigner radio staples as “Hot Blooded,” “Cold as Ice,” “Feels Like the First Time” and “Double Vision.”“I’m quite proud of the fact that the two bands I was a founding member of, King Crimson and Foreigner, are still out there playing,” McDonald said in a 2020 interview with Sound & Vision, even though he had little interest in reunions or rejoining the current iterations of those groups.