Glenn Hughes, biker character in the Village People, dead at 50

<br>NEW YORK (AP) _ Glenn Hughes, a singer who performed as the mustachioed, leather-clad biker in the disco band the Village People, has died of lung cancer. He was 50. <br><br>Hughes, who died on March

Saturday, March 17th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Glenn Hughes, a singer who performed as the mustachioed, leather-clad biker in the disco band the Village People, has died of lung cancer. He was 50.

Hughes, who died on March 4, was one of six men who formed the Village People, a disco group that capitalized on fetishized images of the American male popular in New York's gay nightclubs.

The group, which was the brainchild of producer Jacques Morali, featured men dressed as an Indian, a soldier, a construction worker, a police officer, a cowboy and Hughes' character, a biker.

Hughes was working as a toll collector when friends dared him to respond to an advertisement seeking ``gay singers and dancers, very good-looking and with mustaches.''

The band was an improbable success, expertly balancing a campy and suggestive image that was never too suggestive for the mass market.

The band released its first single, ``San Francisco (You've Got Me),'' in 1977. It followed the next year with its first hit, ``Macho Man.'' The band then produced a string of hits, including ``Y.M.C.A.,'' ``In the Navy'' and ``Go West.''

Collectively the Village People sold 65 million albums and singles.

Although disco fell out of fashion in the 1980s, Hughes stayed with the band until 1996, when he left to sing in Manhattan cabarets.