Ronald Douglas Montrose[1] was an American rock guitarist, who led the bands Montrose (1973-77 & 1987) and Gamma (1979-83 & 2000) and also performed and did session work with a variety of musicians, including Van Morrison (1971–72), Herbie Hancock (1971), Beaver & Krause (1971), Boz Scaggs (1971), Edgar Winter (1972 & 1996), Gary Wright (1975), The Beau Brummels (1975), Dan Hartman (1976), Tony Williams(1978), The Neville Brothers (1987), Marc Bonilla (1991 & 1993), Sammy Hagar(1997), and Johnny Winterdied when he committed suicide.he was , 64. The first Montrose album was often cited as "America's answer to Led Zeppelin"[2] and Ronnie Montrose was often referred to as one of the most influential guitarists in American hard rock.[3]
(November 29, 1947 – March 3, 2012)
about 16 years old to pursue his musical career. He ultimately spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay area.
In 1969, he started out in a band called 'Sawbuck' with
Bill Church. Montrose had been in the process of recording what would have been his first album with Sawbuck when producer
David Rubinson arranged an audition with
Van Morrison. Montrose got the job and played on Morrison's 1971 album
Tupelo Honey.
[6] He also played on the song "
Listen to the Lion", which was recorded during the
Tupelo Honey sessions but released on Morrison's next album
Saint Dominic's Preview (1972).
[7]
Montrose formed his own band,
Montrose, in 1973, featuring
Sammy Hagar on vocals. That incarnation of the band released two albums on
Warner Bros. Records,
Montrose (1973) and
Paper Money (1974), before Hagar left to pursue a solo career. Although the liner notes for the CD edition of
Paper Money said that Montrose was offered to play lead guitar for
Mott the Hoople, when he left the Edgar Winter Group, Montrose says that it never happened and was just a rumor. He also added his guitar work to
Gary Wright's song, "Power of Love" off the 1975 album,
The Dream Weaver.
The guitarist released two more Montrose band albums in the rock/vocal format (
Warner Bros. Presents Montrose! (1975) and
Jump on It (1976), featuring vocalist
Bob James replacing Sammy Hagar), then shifted direction and released his debut solo album, the all-instrumental
Open Fire (1978) before returning to the rock-vocal format and forming
Gamma in 1979, initially releasing three albums under that name with
Davey Pattison singing.
In 1985 he joined
Seattle's
Rail (winners of MTV's first Basement Tapes video competition) for several months. He was looking for a new band and one of Rail's guitarists,
Rick Knotts, had recently left. Billed as 'Rail featuring Montrose' or 'Ronnie & Rail', they played a set of half Rail favorites and half Montrose songs ("Rock Candy", "Rock the Nation", "Matriarch" and Gamma's remake of
Thunderclap Newman's "
Something in the Air"). At the end of the tour, there was an amicable split.
Montrose appeared on Sammy Hagar's solo album
Marching to Mars (1997) along with original Montrose members bassist
Bill Church and drummer
Denny Carmassi on the song "Leaving the Warmth of the Womb". The original Montrose lineup also reformed to play as a special guest at several Sammy Hagar concerts in summer 2004 and 2005. Montrose also performed regularly from 2001 until 2011 with a Montrose lineup featuring Keith St. John on lead vocals and a rotating cast of veteran hard rock players on bass and drums. In 2011, Montrose formed the 'Ronnie Montrose Band' with
Randy Scoles on vocals,
Dan McNay on bass, and
Steve Brown on drums, playing music from his entire career, including both Montrose and Gamma songs. This lineup was captured in his final released work, the concert DVD
Ronnie Montrose: Live at the Uptown.
[9]
During his 2009 tour, Montrose revealed that he had fought prostate cancer for the previous two years but was healthy once again;
[10] he continued to tour until his death in 2012.
Montrose had two children, Jesse and Kira, and five grandchildren. He was also survived by two brothers, Rick and Mike, and his wife, Leighsa.
On March 3, 2012, Montrose died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death was originally assumed to be the result of his prostate cancer.
[11] However, the San Mateo County Coroner's Office released a report that confirmed the guitarist had taken his own life.
[12]
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