Death
During the evening of November 18, 1983, Evans argued with Joey Molland of Badfinger on the telephone, chiefly regarding potential publishing/ASCAP divisions of the song "Without You" whose ASCAP royalties accumulating for airplay had been funding Evans, with other potential publishing funds being held by Apple Corps Ltd. pending resolution of debate between the group members and manager Bill Collins. Early the following morning, 19 November, Evans was found dead by suicide; his body hanging in his back garden from a willow tree. Allegedly, he left no note, but family and friends have speculated he was overwhelmed by the combination of his conflicts with Molland, ex-manager Bill Collins and ex-bandmate Mike Gibbins over the pending royalties, plus the U.S. lawsuit he felt threatened his livelihood further. But a major factor of Evans' depression, alluded to by many friends and family members, was that he was never able to get over his former bandmate's Pete Ham's suicide. Marianne Evans, his wife, was quoted in a documentary stating "Tommy said 'I want to be where Pete is. It's a better place than down here' ...."
Evans is also survived by a son, Stephen.
In 1993, a CD of recordings made in the early 1980s by Evans and musician friend Rod Roach was posthumously released in the U.K. on Gipsy Records under the title Over You (The Final Tracks).
Read more about this topic: Tom Evans (musician)
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“if once the message greet him
That his True Love doth stay,
If Death should come and meet him,
Love will find out the way!”
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