German music producer and singer Frank Farian has died at the age of 82, his family said. He died in the American city of Miami, where he lived.

Farian is known in Germany as the singer of the hit song rocky. He achieved his greatest success behind the scenes, as the founder of the music group Boney M., which had popular hits, especially in the late 1970s and 1980s, such as sunny, Rivers of Babylon, Rasputin And Papa Cool. The group has sold more than 150 million records.

Varian, born Frans Reuther in 1941, was actually a chef. “Because I was always hungry and thought I always wanted to eat something,” he once said. However, he achieved his greatest success as a producer. “The success was a big surprise,” he once told the German news agency. “I always thought I wouldn’t make it.”

Varian certainly wasn’t without controversy. He was also behind the German-French duo Milli Vanilli. It seemed to be an unstoppable success, selling over 30 million records and becoming a huge hit Girl knows this to be true And Girl I will miss you. But these songs are also closely linked to the biggest scandal in pop music history.

Turns out front men Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus don’t sing at all and act like mimes during the shows. The scandal came to light during the show On MTVwhen the tape and sentence faltered The girl you know But keep playing. As it turned out, childhood friends Morvan and Pilatus had never sung a note themselves. Farian and other singers sang everything.

Boney M. was also not without controversy in this light, as Farian also sang frequently for that group himself. The group’s Aruban leader, Bobby Farrell, did not sing himself. He was chosen mainly because of his looks and dancing skills. Farrell died in 2010.

In the end, it is estimated that more than 800 million records were sold that involved Varian in one way or another. When he was eighty, he said, “I succeeded at almost everything The American dream In Germany.”