Music may have lost a legend recently, but the hobby lost one of its most passionate celebrity collectors.
B.J. Thomas passed away on May 29, 2021, less than a week after publicly announcing that he had Stage 4 lung cancer.
Thomas was a musical icon of the last half century. His career really took off with his 1966 million-selling cover of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” He followed that up with his monster hit, “Hooked on a Feeling.” He won an Oscar for the song “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”, which appeared in the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” He won a Grammy with “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.” A five-time Grammy award winner and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, Thomas sold more than 70 million albums worldwide. He had eight No. 1 hits and 26 Top 10 singles over his more than 50 years in the music industry.
Everyone knew who BJ Thomas the singer was. But few knew that he was a bigtime hockey card collector.