Thursday March 3, 2022 “Rock Candy” Montrose (Ronnie Montrose)
Guitarist Ronnie Montrose began his career as a backing musician, playing with Van Morrison, Boz Scaggs, and Edgar Winter. He finally formed his own band in 1973, and when he named the band, he named the band after himself using that often quoted Steve Miller theory of band names.
The first album, Montrose includes Sammy Hagar on lead vocals has often been cited as "America's answer to Led Zeppelin” and today’s song’s inspiration has been suggested to have been the Led Zeppelin track "When The Levee Breaks", in particular the drum introduction.
“Rock Candy” was written primarily by Ronnie Montrose and Sammy Hagar who would also write a song that appeared on the second Montrose album that dealt with the rather complex issue of governments moving the backing of their monetary system from a gold standard to the “full faith and credit of the federal government.”
Wait, could that really be a rock topic?
Ronnie Montrose is often referred to as one of the most influential guitarists in early hard rock.
Ronnie Montrose suffered from clinical depression since early childhood and took his own life on March 3, 2012 at age 64.
Stay safe and well…and yeah maybe this is a little loud for early in the morning but now you can skip that coffee and apologize to your neighbors.