Tragic news has come out about a beloved American singer-songwriter and his wife, who were residing overseas.
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As AV Club and other music outlets spotted, the Belgian publication Sudinfo is reporting that Tucker Zimmerman and his wife, Marie-Claire Lambert, died in a home fire on Saturday. Zimmerman is a folk artist who has released albums since the late ’60s and had a recent surge in popularity with modern audiences.
The couple’s home in Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse, Belgium, caught fire some time around 8 a.m. Saturday, with a neighbor, identified as Philippe, noticing smoke and calling authorities. Firefighters arrived to find the home “gully engulfed in flames,” per a Google translation. The couple was found deceased inside.
The manner of the blaze is currently believed to be accidental. The couple’s cause of death is believed to be asphyxiation from the smoke, according to Philippe. Zimmerman was 85, and Lambert was 82.
“I was having lunch with my wife and I saw a kind of fog through the window. I found it strange, I went out to see what was happening and I saw that my neighbors’ house was on fire,” the neighbor told Sudinfo. “I knew they were elderly and had some difficulty getting around. I thought they might be lying down or trapped and unable to get out. I wanted to go into their home to try and save their lives, but as soon as I opened the door, a huge amount of smoke came out; it was impossible. The emergency services told me they had been asphyxiated.”
The late singer had a lengthy career in music, releasing more than a dozen albums over the years. A cult favorite, he had seen a recent surge in recognition from modern audiences. His 2024 album, Dance of Love, saw the singer work with the popular indie folk band Big Thief, introducing his body of work to their fans.
Zimmerman also famously had an admirer in rock icon David Bowie. Ziggy Stardust himself declared that Zimmerman’s 1969 album, Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman, was one of his favorite albums of all time.
“The guy’s way too qualified for folk, in my opinion,” Bowie wrote in a 2003 Vanity Fair article. “Degrees in theory and composition, studying under composer Henry Onderdonk, Fulbright scholarship, and he wants to be Dylan. A waste of an incendiary talent? Not in my opinion. I always found this album of stern, angry compositions enthralling, and often wondered what ever happened to him. Tucker, an American, was one of the first artists to be produced by my friend and co-producer Tony Visconti, also an American, after they found each other in London. I wonder? Ah, yup, he’s got a Web site. Lives in Belgium. Look him up.”