The Village People have suffered some truly tragic deaths over the years as just one original member remains.
The band has seen plenty of changes over the years, with an ever-revolving door of singers as others are replaced and more tragically pass away.
Now the only remaining member is set to perform with the current iteration of the band at President-elect inauguration, along with stars including Carrie Underwood, Billy Ray Cyrus and Rascal Flatts.
The Village People are behind one of Trump’s favourite songs – the YMCA.
So who remains in the band and who sadly died?
Glenn Hughes – died 2001
Only one original Village People member remains in the band (Image: Getty)
Original Village People member Glenn Hughes sadly died in 2001 after battling He joined the group after seeing an ad searching for “macho” performers in a newspaper while he was working as a toll booth collector.
Glenn, the original ‘Leatherman’ character of the group, remained with them from 1977 until he quit in 1996. Five years later, he died at his Manhattan apartment aged just 50, and was interred wearing his Leatherman outfit.
Glenn had been a heavy smoker since he was a teenager.
Ray Stephens, died 1990
Ray Stephens recorded just one song with The Village People – though he was their lead singer when the group toured England in 1985.
He was better known for his acting role in 80s series The Great Space Coaster, in which he starred as Roy.
Ray was just 35 when he died in October 1990 after battling AIDS.
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Jacques Morali, died 1991
The Village People are set to perform at Trump’s inauguration (Image: Getty Images)
Jacques Morali was The Village People’s mentor and was the one to put the group together, along with launching the careers of vocal group The Ritchie Family.
In the mid-1980s he contracted HIV, and by 1991 he was battling AIDS in a Paris hospital.
Jacques died in November that year, at the age of 44, just two weeks after Queen frontman Freddie Mercury died from AIDS.
Henri Belolo, died 2019
The lesser-known co-creator of The Village People, Henri Belolo met Jacques Morali in the US in 1973 and began working together – before eventually launching the band that sang In The Navy.
But in August 2019, Belolo died unexpectedly at the age of 82, in Paris. His son Jonathan explained Henri had battled pancreatic cancer, which caused his death.
Victor Willis
Victor Willis is the only remaining member in the band (Image: Getty)
Though Victor Willis remains alive, he quit The Village People in 1983 – and a spate of tragedies followed. Originally known as ‘The Policeman’, Victor was the only straight member of the band.
He struggled with drug addiction for years after quitting, and was eventually arrested in 2005 when cops found a gun and crack cocaine in his car, and ordered to attend rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic.
He said at the time: “The nightmare of drug abuse is being lifted from my life … now that the haze of drugs are gone, I’m thinking and seeing clearer now than I have in years… I’m looking forward to living the second part of my life drug-free.”
Victor is the only remaining member of the original group set to perform at Trump’s inauguration.
Other tragedies
Deaths and drug addiction aren’t the only tragedies to plague the group. ‘GI’ Alex Briley sadly lost his brother Jonathan in the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
He was speculated to have been the photographed Falling Man, who was pictured falling to his death from a window of the North Tower. He was one of an estimated 100-200 people who died in the attack either by jumping, falling from or being pushed out of one of the upper storeys.