Dan Peek, co-founder of America, dies

Dan Peek, a co-founder of the band America, has died at age 60, Billboard reports. His wife Catherine found him in bed in his home in Farmington, Mo., on Sunday. The cause of death is not yet known.

Originally from Panama City, Fla., Peek moved to the United Kingdom in the late 1960s when the Air Force sent his father to work at military base there. He met his future bandmates, Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley, at London Central High School, a school for the children of military personnel.

The trio formed America soon after graduating, choosing the name to signal that they were real Americans, not just British musicians putting on accents, the Kansas City Star notes.

The band’s first single, “A Horse With No Name,” was a number one song in 1971. Other hits included "Lonely People” and “Sister Golden Hair."

Peek left the band in 1977 to establish a career as a Christian pop artist.

America is scheduled to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year.