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Artist
Piet Botha
12+ albums
afrikaanssouth africaafrikaans rock
about
Piet Botha (18 July 1955 – 2 June 2019)[1] was a South African musician and the frontman of the South African rock band Jack Hammer (in which he was known as "The Hammer"), which has been an opening act for bands such as ZZ Top, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. He also performed solo. Piet Botha was born in 1955 and shared his birth date of 18th July with Nelson Mandela. He began writing songs and forming bands while still at school and his first professional gig was as an acoustic duo in 1974 at a local drinking hole in Pretoria. Piet Botha was the son of the former South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Pik Botha (not to be confused with P.W. Botha). Pik Botha, who served during the last years of the apartheid era was considered to be a liberal, at least in comparison to others in the ruling National Party and among the Afrikaner community at the time. From 1981 to 1983 Piet Botha was involved with Wildebeest which was one of the first bands to mix rock music with Afrikaans lyrics and recorded ‘Bossies’, a song about the South West African / Angolan Border War, which was very much a no-no during those Apartheid times. In 1984 he co-founded the Blues Rock group Jack Hammer which was more than just a band, it was a collective of musicians that somehow survived the strange machinery that is the South African music industry and produced some sterling original albums over the years. Since their first performance the one constant factor in the band had been the man affectionate
