Ronnie Montrose was born in Denver, Colarado in 1947 but soon moved to California and began his career as a studio musician, contributing guitar parts to Van Morrison's Tupelo Honey and the Edgar Winter Group's They Only Come Out At Night playing guitar on "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride." In 1973, he formed his own band first enlisting drummer Denny Carmassi and bassist Bill Church before discovering a frenetic blonde singer named Sammy Hagar at a club in San Francisco.
Their first album Montrose (produced by Ted Templemen) contained the distinctively 70s classic rock hits Bad Motor Scooter and Rock Candy. Montrose's guitar work vacillates between perfectly fast riffing and tastier tuneful playing. Its no surprise that for most of his career, Montrose has alternated between rock albums and jazz rock with artists like Tony Williams.
The initial success of Montrose brought the band to tour with other staple acts of the mid and late '70s such as Journey, and led to a second album Paper Money. Unfortunately, the sophomore jinx proved true in this instance, and despite a few good songs the vibe wasn't quite right. Aside from the title track and the hyperkenetic You Got The Fire the rest of the songs including the maudlin Going Home didn't live up to the first album. The creative tension between Hagar and Montrose heightened and Sammy was fired from the band.
With Bob James on vocals, the band stayed together for 2 more albums, Warner Brothers Presents Montrose and the Jack Douglas produced Jump On It, both more famous for their tacky album covers than their songs. The group continued to play festivals and concerts for a few more years, then disbanded in 1977.
Hagar parlayed his firing into a successful solo career, Van Halen and stint as a club owner/tequila pitchman. Montrose released a few solo albums in the 1980s, then formed Gamma, the band explored much of the same terrain as Montrose, but with an emphasis on instrumentals. Ronnie tours occasionally, and recently played a few gigs with another '70s guitar hero, Rick Derringer, and performed at the the Arrow Rock Festival in Holland and Harrah's in Las Vegas this summer.
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