Category: GUITARIST

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George Kooymans 7/2025

George Kooymans (77) – lead guitarist for Golden Earring – was born 11 March 1948 in The Hague, the Netherlands.

In 1961, 13 year old Kooymans and his 15 year old neighbor Rinus Gerritsen formed a rock duo. They originally called themselves “The Tornados”, but changed their name to “The Golden Earrings” when they learnt of The Tornados, a UK instrumental group who had just had a hit with “Telstar“. The name “the Golden Earrings” was taken from an instrumental called “Golden Earrings” performed by the British group the Hunters, for whom they often served as opening and closing act. Initially a pop-rock band with Frans Krassenburg on lead vocals and another neighborhood kid Jaap Eggermont on drums, the Golden Earrings had several pophits with ‘Please Go’, ‘Daddy Buy Me A Girl’ en ‘In My House’ all recorded in 1965. Dissatisfied with Dutch recording studios, the band’s manager Fred Haayen arranged for the next single to be recorded at the Pye Records studios in London. The record cut at Pye, “That Day”, reached number two on the Dutch charts. But then singer Krassenburg was called into military service and for 18 months the band was limited. By 1967 Kooymans and Gerritsen wanted to go a different musical direction and after two albums, and in 1968 Indonesian born Dutch singer/songwriter Barry Hay joined on lead vocals permanently, and by 1970, drummer Sieb Warner had been replaced by Cesar Zuiderwijk, and the principal lineup (that would last for 50 years) was finalized.

Two years later, the band earned their first number one hit in the Netherlands with the song “Dong Dong Diki Digi Dong” and followed it with another chart-topper, the Kooymans-penned epic “Just a Little Bit of Peace in My Heart.” Golden Earring embarked on their first major US tour in 1969–1970. Owing to American influences, their music evolved towards hard rock, and they performed along with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Procol Harum, and Eric Clapton. Ground work for entering the US market was being laid by East Coast FM radio disc jockey and music critic Neil Kempfer-Stocker, who is credited as the first radio DJ to play the band in the US. These singles were followed by a successful psychedelic rock album Eight Miles High, which featured a 19-minute version of the title track, a cover of the 1966 hit song by the Byrds. The song, played throughout their US tour, became the core performance of their live shows, and their experience in the US led them to make their studio albums resemble their live shows, rather than the other way around.

In 1970, Kooymans branched out into songwriting for other groups, penning Earth & Fire‘s Dutch hit “Seasons.” Meanwhile, his main band shortened its name to Golden Earring and set about revamping its sound to keep up with the times, eventually settling on a straightforward, hard-rocking brand of AOR.

Kooymans (like lead singer Barry Hay) made a brief detour into solo recording in 1971, cutting an album called Jojo that was released on Polydor. 

Between 1969 and 1984, Golden Earring completed 13 US tours. During this period, they performed as the opening act for Santana, King Crimson, the Doobie Brothers, Rush and .38 Special. During 1973–74, when “Radar Love” was a hit, they had Kiss and Aerosmith as their opening acts. The band enjoyed brief international fame in the 1970s when the single version of “Radar Love” (1973), from the gold-certified album Moontan, became a hit in both Europe and the US. The band’s American records during this period were issued by the Perception Records label in New York, and the band’s Golden Earring LP, known as Wall of Dolls, and single “Back Home” performed poorly in the US but became a number 1 hit in the Netherlands.

Golden Earring released the Live album in 1977. The album was recorded at London’s Rainbow Theater.

US stardom evaporated as quickly as it had been built. Punk and new wave forced them to retool their sound once again, and they returned to international prominence in 1982 with the album Cut and the U.S. Top Ten hit “Twilight Zone,” a Kooymans composition that had actually been planned as a solo release at first. When “Twilight Zone” hit the airwaves, the music video of the song was played on the recently launched MTV, and helped the song to become a US hit, spending 27 weeks on the Billboard chart. 

As a key creative force behind Golden Earring, Kooymans co-wrote many of the band’s most iconic songs with singer Barry Hay.

“When the Lady Smiles” became an international hit in 1984, reaching No. 3 in Canada and becoming the band’s fifth number one hit in their native country, but was not successful in the United States, reaching no higher than #76 on the US Singles Chart. Reason for that could be found in the fact that the song’s video was banned from MTV because of its “unholy desires about a nun and a lobotomy“.  Tragedy struck when touring the US in 1984, and the band played at the Great Arena Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey on May 11 and were in the midst of their performance when a fire broke out at the Haunted Castle on the opposite side of the theme park, killing eight teenagers.

Following this tour, Golden Earring turned their focus toward Europe where they continued to attract standing-room-only crowds for years to come. The group paused briefly after the release of The Hole in 1986 to focus on other projects, with Hay and Kooymans both releasing solo albums (Victory of Bad Taste and Solo, respectively) the following year. The group then reconvened to record their final album of the 1980s, releasing Keeper of the Flame in 1989.

Over the decades, George Kooymans’ powerful guitar riffs, melodic sensibility, and distinctive voice helped shape the band’s sound through a remarkable career that spanned more than 50 years. And beyond his work with Golden Earring, Kooymans also pursued solo projects and collaborations with other Dutch musicians. His solo album, “Jojo” (1987) showcased his versatility as a songwriter and performer. He also contributed significantly to the Dutch music scene through his production work and support for emerging artists.

In 1991, Golden Earring had another hit in the Netherlands with “Going to the Run”, a rock-ballad about a Hells Angels motorcycle gang member who was a friend of the band and died in a crash. Between 1992 and 2004, the band released three acoustic live unplugged albums, which became quick successes. The first, The Naked Truth, sold 450,000 copies within the first year and became the third-best selling album of 1993 in the Netherlands.

In 1995, Kooymans and Hay discovered female rock singer Anouk, and wrote material for her 1997 debut album, Together Alone, which made her a star in the Netherlands. Golden Earring celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2011, which the Dutch postal service honored with a stamp that contained a music link: when a smartphone with a special app is held up to the music stamp, Golden Earring’s “Radar Love” plays.

Kooymans reached the Dutch charts once again in 2010 with On Location, recorded as part of a duet with American singer Frank Carillo.

On 11 May 2012, the band released what was to be their final studio album, Tits ‘n Ass.

On 5 February 2021, the band’s manager announced to the Dutch press that the band’s active career was over due to George Kooymans’ serious ALS illness.

During their career they had nearly 30 top ten singles on the Dutch charts and released 25 studio albums.

In the shadow of Ozzy Osbourne’s death on the same date, George Kooymans passed on July 22, 2025 from complications of ALS. He was 77 years old.

 

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Charlie Daniels 7/2020

Charlie Daniels (83) was born on October 28, 1936 in Wilmington, North Carolina to teenage parents William and LaRue Daniel. The “s” in Daniels’ name was added by mistake when his birth certificate was filled out. Two weeks after Daniels had begun to attend elementary school, his family moved to Valdosta, Georgia, commuting between Valdosta and Elizabethtown, North Carolina, before moving back to Wilmington. After enduring measles, Daniels would require glasses to see for most of his life afterward, which led to him being bullied by other children at his school. Despite these challenges, Daniels found inspiration in Pentecostal gospel music, local bluegrass groups, and rhythm and blues artists he heard on the radio.

He graduated from high school in 1955 and began his music career as a member of the bluegrass band Misty Mountain Boys in the 1950s. Soon after he enlisted in the rock ‘n’ roll revolution ignited by Mississippian Elvis Aron Presley. Already skilled on guitar, fiddle and mandolin, Daniels formed a rock ‘n roll band the Rockets and hit the road.

While enroute to California in 1959 the group paused in Texas to record “Jaguar,” an instrumental produced by the legendary Bob Johnston, which was picked up for national distribution by Epic. And the Rockets became The Jaguars. It was also the beginning of a long association with Johnston. After discovering jazz as a genre, the Jaguars began performing jazz music, before reverting to rock and country music by 1964.

During his career as a rock and roll sideman, Daniels also wrote songs for other performers. In July 1963, soul singer Jerry Jackson recorded Daniels’ song “It Hurts Me”; the following year 1964 and Elvis Presley recorded the better-known version of this song, which was released on the flip side of “Kissin’ Cousins.” The songwriting credits list Charles E. Daniels and Joy Byers as the songwriters, although Byers’ husband, songwriter and producer Bob Johnston, was the actual co-writer with Daniels. In 1967 Johnston encouraged Daniels to move to Nashville to get work as a session player, which led to Daniels recording with Bob Dylan on his 1969 album Nashville Skyline, Ringo Starr on his 1970 album Beaucoups of Blues and Leonard Cohen on his 1971 album Songs of Love and Hate, as well as further sessions with Dylan and Cohen’s 1971 European tour. Dylan and Daniels found each other creatively invigorating during their recordings together, with Dylan saying that “when Charlie was around, something good would usually come out of the sessions”, and Daniels describing the recording sessions with Dylan as “loose, free and, most of all, fun”. Daniels also produced albums for the Youngbloods, including their 1969 album Elephant Mountain.

His own unique voice as an artist emerged as Charlie recorded his self-titled solo album in 1970 for Capitol Records, which helped lay the foundations for what became known as Southern rock.  Two years later he formed the Charlie Daniels Band and Daniels broke through as a record maker, himself with 1973’s Honey in the Rock and its hit hippie song “Uneasy Rider,” which scored top Ten Billboard His rebel anthems “Long Haired Country Boy” and “The South’s Gonna Do It” propelled his 1975 collection Fire on the Mountain to double platinum status.
The same year he followed up with the even more successful Nightrider, whose success was spurred by the Top 40 hit single “Texas”. Saddle Tramp was also a gold seller, and was the first release by the band to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Country charts.

“We were country but not what was accepted by the country music establishment at the time – certainly not what Nashville was putting out at the time. It was very much different from that. Every other music was changing and moving and cooking, and it was time for country to do that, too. And a song like “Long Haired Country Boy,” or “The South’s Going to Do It,” or “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” kind of kicked it in the rear end a little bit.”

In 1974 he invited some friends to join him at Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium for an all-star concert he dubbed The Volunteer Jam.  The event continued for years and was broadcast in the U.S. and internationally.  Over the years, the Jam featured a diverse line up that included Willie Nelson, Ted Nugent, Roy Acuff, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Crystal Gayle, James Brown, Emmylou Harris, Amy Grant, George Thorogood, Kris Kristofferson, Little Richard, Tammy Wynette, Alabama, Oak Ridge Boys, BB King and the Allman Brothers.
 
Since then the CDB has populated radio with such memorable hits as “Long Haired Country Boy,” “The South’s Gonna Do It Again,” “In America,” “The Legend of Wooley Swamp” and of course, his signature song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”.
The band also attracted a high-profile fan in President Jimmy Carter, who used Daniels’ song “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” as his campaign theme, After Carter’s win, the band performed at his 1977 inauguration.

Epic Records signed him to its rock roster in New York in 1976. The contract, reportedly worth $3 million, was the largest ever given to a Nashville act up to that time. In the summer of 1979 Daniels rewarded the company’s faith by delivering “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which became a platinum single, topped both country and pop charts, won a Grammy Award, earned three Country Music Association trophies, became a cornerstone of the Urban Cowboy movie soundtrack and propelled Daniel’s Million Mile Reflections album to triple platinum sales levels.

The album’s title was a reference to a milestone in the Charlie Daniels Band’s legendary coast to coast tours. Including two drummers, twin guitars and a flamenco dancer. The CDB often toured more than 250 days a year and by this time had logged more than a million miles on the road. On the Million Mile Reflections Tour, transported in a convoy of busses and gleaming black tractor trailer rigs a show that stopped traffic all over the country the band now included a full horn section, back up singers, a troupe of clog dancers and sometimes a gospel choir. By 1981, the Charlie Daniels Band had twice been voted the Academy of Country Music’s touring band of the year.

Full Moon, issued in 1980, became Daniels’ third platinum album. Simple Man (1989) is also platinum while A Decade of Hits (1983) is triple platinum, and Windows (1982), Saddle Trump (1976), and Midnight Wind (1977) are Gold. He earned a Dove Award from the Gospel Music Association in 1994 for The Door, and a 1997 CMA nomination for his remake of “Long Haired Country Boy” featuring John Berry and Hal Ketchum. Amazing Grace: A Country Salute to Gospel, a compilation album including Daniels’ “Kneel at the Cross,” garnered a 1995 Grammy Award. In 1996 he was honored with a boxed set of his classics. His By the Light of the Moon: Campfire Songs & Cowboy Tunes (1997), Christmas Time Down South (1990) and Blues Hat (1997) albums added further layers to his multi-faceted style.

In 1980, Daniels had played himself in the film Urban Cowboy, starring John Travolta, and as a result became closely identified with the revival of country music generated by the film’s success. Subsequently, the combination of the success of the more country-oriented song and the decline in popularity of Southern rock led Daniels to shift focus in his sound from rock to country music. After the platinum certified Full Moon (1980) and the gold certified Windows (1982), Daniels would not have another hit album until the 1989 release Simple Man, which earned Daniels another gold album, although the title track sparked controversy, as it was interpreted by some as advocating vigilantism, due to lyrics such as “Just take them rascals [rapists, killers, child abusers] out in the swamp/Put ’em on their knees and tie ’em to a stump/Let the rattlers and the bugs and the alligators do the rest”, which garnered Daniels considerable media attention and talk show visits.

Daniels’ annual Volunteer Jam concerts, world famous musical extravaganzas that served as a prototype for many of today’s annual day long music marathons, always featured a variety of current stars and heritage artists and are considered by historians as his most impressive contribution to Southern music. Among the artists “Jam Daddy” has hosted at 16 of these mega musical samplers are Roy Acuff, Don Henley, Tanya Tucker, Amy Grant, Leon Russell, Billy Ray Cyrus, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, James Brown, Duane Eddy, Pat Boone, The Outlaws, Dwight Yoakam, Steppenwolf, Bill Monroe, Exile, The Judds, Orleans, Willie Nelson, Carl Perkins, Vince Gill, George Thorogood, Emmylou Harris, Alabama, the Allman Brothers, Link Wray, Ted Nugent, Billy Joel, the Marshall Tucker Band, Solomon Burke, Little Richard, B. B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eugene Fodor, Woody Herman, and Bobby Jones and the New Life Singers.

When you hear a classic Charlie Daniels Band performance like “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” you hear music that knows no clear genre. Is it a folk tale? A southern boogie? A country fiddle tune? An electric rock anthem? The answer is, yes to all of that and more. And the same goes for “In America,” “Uneasy Rider,” “The South ‘s Gonna Do It,” “Long Haired Country Boy,” “Still in Saigon,” “The Legend of Wooley Swamp,” and the rest of a catalog that spans more than 35 years of record making and represents more than 18 million copies in sales.

Having been born in North Carolina, his roots have always been slightly more to the Country side of music. An astute businessman as well as talented musician, Charlie launched Blue Hat Records in 1997 with his longtime personal manager David Corlew.  Over the years, the label has released such memorable albums as Blues Hat, Tailgate Party, Road Dogs, Fiddle Fire: 25 Years of the Charlie Daniels Band and his first bluegrass album 2005’s Songs From the Longleaf Pines and 2007’s album Deuces, featuring duets with Brad Paisley, Gretchen Wilson, Bonnie Bramlett, Travis Tritt, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Brenda Lee and Darius Rucker. 

In April 1998, top stars and two former Presidents paid tribute to Daniels when he was named the recipient of the Pioneer Award at the Academy of Country Music’s annual nationally televised ceremonies:

“In his time he’s played everything from rock to jazz, folk to western swing, and honky tonk to award winning gospel,” former President Jimmy Carter said. “In Charlie’s own words, ‘Let there be harmony. Let there be fun and 12 notes of music to make us all one.”

“Charlie’s love of music is only surpassed by his love of people, especially the American people,” former President Gerald Ford said. “For almost five decades, he’s traveled this land from coast to coast singing about the things that concern the American people. Tonight, the Academy of Country Music’s Pioneer Award is presented to a supremely talented compassionate and proud American, and a fair to middlin’ golfer, too!”

With an unerring instinct for the universal ties that bind people together and an equal abhorrence for the intolerance and fear that do the opposite, Charlie Daniels has kept the specifics of his cultural heritage as the soul of the CDB music that has impacted lives of everyday people everywhere.

“It’s purely American music with something for everyone,” he said. “At least that’s what I’ve hoped for in my 40 plus years in music.

Charlie Daniels died July 6, 2020 from a stroke. He was 83.

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Eddie King 3/2012

eddie-kingMarch 14, 2012 – Eddie King (73) (Blues Guitarist) was born Edward Lewis Davis Milton on April 21st 1938 in Lineville, near Talladega, Alabama. His parents were both musical: his father played the guitar, and his mother was a gospel singer. “My dad played country blues just like John Lee Hooker. After his mother died in 1950 he moved to Kentucky with some of his brothers and sisters, and then on to Chicago in 1954 with an uncle.

For a blues musician to change his surname to King to get attention may seem a bit on the ludicrous side, kind of like an actor or actress changing his or her name to Barrymore. But this is just what guitarist Eddie Milton did when he transformed himself into Eddie King, becoming in the process the least well-known of the blues guitar King dynasty; despite his tireless efforts as a sideman with many blues greats, as well as a career as a bandleader during the later part of his life. Eventually gravitating toward the busy blues scene of Chicago’s South and West Side in the late ’50s and ’60s.

As a youngster, he was too young to get into blues clubs, but learned guitar by smushing his face up against the windows, watching the guitarists in action, memorizing the patterns and runs he saw on the fret board, then finally sprinting home to see if he could remember any of it. Eddie’s musical peers were players from the second generation of Windy City bluesmen who came up on the sounds of artists such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter. Some of these associates, such as Luther Allison, Magic Sam, Junior Wells, and became fairly big on the international blues scene; while others, such as the wonderful Eddie C. Campbell or Milton, became better known as typical examples of high quality blues artists that were basically laboring in obscurity.

A fairly short fellow, he learned to get around the taller and sometimes somewhat better guitar competition by learning to be a showman. “Little Eddie” was actually his first stage name, obviously leading to confusion with the rhythm & blues artist Little Milton. When he began picking in a style heavily influenced by BB King, Little Eddie King became first a nickname only used by friends, but evolved into a stage name as well. Another diminutive bluesman, Little Mac Simmons, gave him his first big break, although the reason for the hiring might have had more to do with not wanting to have any taller sidemen on-stage than his musical ability. Eddie King’s first recordings were with bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon, leading to a second guitar position on several Sonny Boy Williamson II sides in 1960.

The next major period in his career was as lead guitarist with Koko Taylor. He was with this fiery blues singer for more than two decades. In 1969, he and bassist Bob Stroger formed Eddie King & the Kingsmen, a group that worked together off and on for the next 15 years, at first overlapping with the Taylor stint. From the early ’80s onward, he had been based out of Peoria, IL.

Besides his exciting guitar work, King is also known as a superior soul shouter, again in a style modeled after the singing of BB King. He presented a mixed bag from blues history, ranging from modern urban blues to the type of country blues he grew up with. He also ventured into the Southern soul genre, and would mix up the material of a given gig based on what the audience is responding best to. Young players such as bassist Jamie Jenkins, drummer Kevin Gray, and Doug Daniels doubling on sax and keyboards were regular members of his combos. As a bandleader, King demonstrated that he may have been a late bloomer as a songwriter, but that in blues it is never too late to come up with good material.”

The Swamp Bees was the name of his own group since the ’90s, and this outfit has swarmed onto stages at blues venues nationally and internationally and his output incorporated Chicago blues, country blues, blues shouter, and soul.

Shy, but with a lots of soulful feeling and no wasted notes, he played a variety of styles from the urban blues of Albert King, to the some county blues, to southern soul, to a more sophisticated BB King style and pulled it all together with an approach that quickly earned your respect. He also liked to mix up his songs for the crowd, playing blues, soul and R&B depending on how he was reading the audience at the moment.

Into his 60s, he still was playing with the energy of a young man. His first solo record finally came out when others his age were busy concentrating on collecting their senior citizen’s benefits. The album, The Blues Has Got Me (1987), was issued by the Netherlands-based record label Black Magic and later re-released by Double Trouble. It featured one of his sisters, Mae Bee May, on vocals.

In 1997, King recorded the well-received but obscure Another Cow’s Dead album on a small label co-owned by a belly dancer. This album won a W.C. Handy Award for best comeback album of the year. It was arranged by Lou Marini. His songwriting credits include “Kitty Kat”, described by one music journalist as “hilarious”.

King died in Peoria, Illinois on March 14, 2012, at the age of 73. In October 2012, the Killer Blues Headstone Project, a nonprofit organization, placed a headstone on King’s unmarked grave at the Lutheran Cemetery in Peoria.

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Alan Murphy 10/1989

Alan Murphy (35) – guitarist with Level 42 – was born on November 28th 1953 in Islington, London.

Murphy’s first musical group was called Blackmass and consisted of Murphy, Roy Phillips, James Hedges, Terry Eden, Steve Paget, and Vincent Duffy. Blackmass was named in tribute to Deep Purple founding guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, an early influence of Murphy’s. The band fell apart when their equipment was stolen.

Murphy then performed with Fusion Orchestra for the better part of 1975. In 1982, he handled on-stage guitar duties for London-based new wave vocalist Zaine Griff (originally from New Zealand), performing music that was in many ways a stylistic precursor to the sound of Go West that he would help forge several years later. In 1984, Murphy worked on the album Cold in a Warm Climate with the band Paparazzi, becoming a member in preparation for a major European tour. When Paparazzi unexpectedly dissolved over internal disagreements and managerial problems, Murphy was recruited to play on the debut album of Go West in 1985, shortly thereafter becoming an official member and a key component in their sound.

Murphy was then enlisted to support Kate Bush on The Tour of Life, which took in Europe and the UK in 1979. Both a live video and EP were released with material taken from this tour. He also contributed to her albums Never for Ever (1980), The Dreaming (1982), Hounds of Love (1985), The Sensual World (1989), and the single “Rocket Man”.

In 1988, Murphy was asked to replace Level 42 guitarist Boon Gould, and recorded with the band on their album, Staring at the Sun (1988). A live album was recorded during this period, Live at Wembley. This was one of the last major projects that Murphy worked on before his death.

Murphy was a session man who worked with many artists, including Rod Stewart on the Atlantic Crossing Tour in 1976, David Bowie, Ace on their No. 1 hit “How Long”, Nick Heyward, Long John Baldry, Joan Armatrading, Mike and the Mechanics, Amii Stewart, Andrew Caine, Eikichi Yazawa, Scritti Politti, So, Iain Williams and Miquel Brown. Alan also shared an extensive and fruitful writing partnership with his distant cousin Michael Finbarr Murphy who wrote and played guitar for Heatwave, Central Line and Diana Ross among others.

Sometime in the mid 1980s Alan Murphy contracted HIV from a homosexual relationship and weakened by AIDS, he died of pneumonia on October 19, 1989. He was 35.