He was living at Lambourn in Berkshire at the time and had returned to the studio shortly before his death to record with Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green. At the time of death Powell had recently had to pull out of tour rehearsals with Yngwie Malmsteen, having suffered an injury in a motorcycle accident. One of his last phone calls, to Joe Geesin (his fan club editor), was to express distress about this, to describe the physiotherapy treatment he was undergoing, and to voice his enthusiasm for the then-forthcoming Brian May tour.