Michael Brewer, a member of the folk-rock group Brewer & Shipley, has died. He was eighty.
On Tuesday, December 17, Brewer’s musical collaborator, Tom Shipley, revealed his death in a Facebook post. According to a message on the band’s Facebook page, Brewer has “battled multiple illnesses for the past 3 years.” However, investigators have not yet determined the official cause of death.
He accompanied his statement with a photo of Brewer. “When I met him on Saturday at Cox Hospital in Branson, he said he wanted to go home. “He was weak and tired.”
Shipley, 83, continued, “They brought him home on Sunday, and his wife Scarlett called this morning to inform me he had left. So today, I’ll raise a glass to Michael and toast all those years, miles, songs, and magnificent audiences we’ve performed for. Go with God, my buddy.” I will see you on the other side.”
The band also announced Brewer’s death on their Facebook page.
“It is with great sadness we must share that Michael Brewer passed away earlier today (12/17), having battled multiple illnesses for the past 3 years,” according to the message.
Charles “Michael” Brewer, the eldest of four children, was born in Oklahoma City in April of 1944. Before taking up guitar, he played drums and sang in a rock band in high school. Following graduation in 1962, he began performing his own music in coffee shops around the United States, where he met Shipley at one of the events in Kent, Ohio.
In 1965, Brewer and singer-songwriter Tom Mastin formed the duo Mastin & Brewer, and Jefferson Airplane later covered their song “How Do You Feel”. The two moved to Los Angeles and signed with Columbia Records, creating a band that opened for musicians such as the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield.
However, Mastin left the band before recording the album. Brewer then teamed up with Shipley, who lived nearby in Los Angeles, to become composers for A&M Records’ publishing department.
Brewer and Shipley achieved prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with their socially aware songs and commentaries on the Vietnam War. In 1971, they had a top ten success with “One Toke Over the Line,” a tribute to marijuana and the free-love ethos of the era.
“We wrote it literally entertaining ourselves and to make our friends laugh,” Brewer said of the tune in a 2022 interview on NPR’s A Breath of Fresh Air.
He said, “We were about to go onstage for our fourth performance when a friend stopped by with some really amazing Lebanese hash. We strolled out back, had a few tokes, and returned to tune up for our last performance, when Tom stated, ‘Man, I’m one toke over the line.'” And I just cracked up.”
Throughout their career, they also charted two more singles on the Billboard Hot 100: “Tarkio Road,” which reached No. 55 in 1970, and “Shake Off the Demon,” which peaked at No. 98 in 1972.
Brewer and Shipley parted ways amicably in 1980 but reunited for a special event in Kansas City, as well as more reunion shows in 1987. They finally started their own firm, One Toke Productions, and have written songs and released two CDs.
The two also continued to perform together.
Brewer also recorded many solo albums, including the Dan Fogelberg-produced Beauty Lies in 1983, Michael Brewer/Retro Man in 2004, It Is What It Is in 2010, and Dancing with My Shadow in 2012.