Quiet Riot singer Kevin DuBrow died Sunday, drummer Frankie Banali confirmed in a post on his Web site. DuBrow was 52 years old and the official cause of his death has yet to be determined... (full article)
I remember Christmas 1983 very well because it was the year that I got my first heavy metal album, Metal Health by Quiet Riot. Quiet Riot's cover of the Slade song "Cum on Feel the Noize" was still being played all over the place and even after months and months of airplay, I still loved the song. I was so excited to finally get the album and I remember tearing the wrapping paper off and holding the album in my hands as I stared at the cover art. I especially remember flipping the album over to read the song titles and seeing the song title "Love's a Bitch." I snickered and pointed it out to my sister who was sitting next to me. My dad had been watching from across the room and when he saw me giggling he said, "Yep, he found it..." He knew that my 10 year-old sense of humor was easily amused by the simplest of swear words.
But Quiet Riot was much more than a one-hit wonder or a novelty to me. Like a lot of people my age, I can honestly say that it was Quiet Riot who made me a metal fan for life. To this day, Quiet Riot albums are still a huge part of my day-to-day listening. Just last weekend, I was playing QR III while baby Z. And I drove around town running errands. Back when I was a kid, I knew all the songs on Metal Health and played the record over and over again every day for months on end. When Condition Critical was due to be released in 1984, I called the Record Bar store in Lexington's Turfland Mall over and over again, checking and re-checking the release date. When the big day finally came and the album was released, my Dad took me to the mall that night after he got off work and he got the album for me. It was a great night (Thanks, Dad...
). I loved that album just as much as Metal Health and it wasn't long before I had memorized the words to all the songs from Condition Critical. I even remember writing the album lyrics in my school notebooks instead of doing my school work. Good times, indeed.The Internet was over a decade away back then and although I wanted to know everything possible about my favorite band, I was left to piece together bits of information from album jackets, newspaper clippings and articles from rock magazines like Circus and Hit Parader. Truth be told, my folks didn't by rock magazines for me that often, so I just re-read the same articles over and over again. Kevin DuBrow was one of my heroes back then. It really impressed me to read about how he had clawed his way to the top after enduring all sorts of failures and personal tragedies. Back then, the press was all good, but it didn't stay that way for long. That's all history now, though.
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| Better times: Kevin DuBrow with the great Randy Rhoads |
Through it all – through decades of success times and periods of unfortunate failure-- Kevin DuBrow was everything that a metal front man should be: talented, boisterous, unrestrained and constantly in everyone's face. He's gone now, passing quietly away after leaving a huge mark on heavy metal and on pop culture itself. Quiet Riot songs have featured in some of the better memories of my life, including on our wedding day when Thomai and I danced to "Afterglow (of Your Love)". I still remember how we were all alone on the dance floor as everyone watched us dance to the song. Not many weddings feature Quiet Riot songs on the DJ list, but ours did.
I will always think of Kevin DuBrow fondly and I will remain thankful that there he was the driving force behind so much great music. He was a true innovator in the huge 1980s metal scene and he will surely be remembered as nothing less than an icon.
