Detroit Rock - N - Roll LIVES ON!!!

Lost Heroes....Detroit, as a band was connected to a lot of really cool people and great talents. Here we will pay homage to them.... 

This page will be undergoing a lot of re-vamping. 

Please bear with us in the meantime. 

Mic E. Vee

Johnny Thunders....yes, THE Johnny Thunders of New York Dolls & Heartbreakers fame. 

How is he connected to Detroit, the band, or,  the city's music scene???

....WELL....

Once upon a time Johnny was chillin' out w. Ron Cooke for awhile out in, of all places...DEXTER, Michigan... He got cleaned up & In-Action w Ron, & Wayne Kramer w Johnny Morgan and formed a band that toured around & did a batch of legendary shows!!!! What a powerhouse bunch they were....So, A TRUE Motor City Salute to YOU JT....You are missed...Thank You for leaving Your mark on OUR hearts!!!!! 

                                 GANG WAR

                        What a bunch of BadAss Rock-n-Roll MoFos

                     1 Part Thunder, & 3 Parts Motor City Kick-Ass!!!!

                             Ron Asheton: 

        Man, oh man, there is so much to be said here, and much more to come on this kat....for sure...be patient & work w me here...LOL!!!! 

                              Mr. Rusty Day

  Rusty, Rusty, Rusty...Where do we begin...He began as Drummer & Vocalist and had a hit with his band 'Rusty Day & The Midnighters'  called " I Gotta Move "  He later took his place in the Amboy Dukes, did some albums & toured with them for awhile. Then, things being what they were, he parted ways & moved on. Well, the next move became known as 'Cactus ' w Jim Mccarty, Tim Bogert & Carmine Appice....They were called " America's Led Zeppelin " by many, because they were that good & powerful, and as well were power blues based. He took the helm of DETROIT, the band, &  w His buddy Steve Gaines ( pre-Skynyrd) they rocked it out.  More on Rusty later.......

Here is some of what he did: 

Each of these that will be on this page are people who have passed through the Detroit scene to become heroes and legends of epic proportions. We intend to do all we can to celebrate the men they were and the legend the created for themselves, and the doors they opened for so many others.

"Open Up St. Peter, Another Hard Rocker is Comin' Home" From 'Hard Rocker' by Detroit, written by W.R. Cooke 2006

GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN:

Johnny Thunders: New York Dolls/The Heartbreakers/Gang War. Here was a Legend of Truly Epic proportions. His swagger, attitude and defiance are what made him infamous, and his time in the Detroit scene is often overlooked. But his stay here lead to the formation of 'Gang War', a Tour D'Force band featuring JT, Wayne Kramer, Ron Cooke and John Morgan. They toured and tore stages up coast to coast and around the world. Not much remains of the memory of that band, but what does remain is explosive. Long Live Rock-n-Roll, Long Live Johnny Thunders!!! For more info on JT go to www.thunders.ca

Johnny Thunders
Background information
Birth name	John Anthony Genzale, Jr
Born	July 15, 1952 Queens, NY, USA
Died	April 23, 1991 (aged 38) New Orleans, LA, USA
Genre(s)	Rock and roll, punk rock, glam rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist
Instrument(s)	guitar
Associated acts	New York Dolls, The Heartbreakers
Notable instrument(s)
Gibson Les Paul Junior Gibson Les Paul Special

Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr. (July 15, 1952 - April 23, 1991), was an Italian American rock and roll/punk rock guitarist, singer and songwriter.

Though he disapproved of the term "punk rock", Thunders is widely recognized as a foundational influence on the genre, particularly for his penetrating guitar sound. IGN.com listed him as one of "Punk Rock's 10 Mightiest Guitar Gods".[1]

He came to prominence in the early '70s as a member of the New York Dolls, and afterwards became a familiar figure in the New York punk scene, both with The Heartbreakers and as a solo artist.

Thunders struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and died under mysterious circumstancesEarly life and career

Genzale was born July 15, 1952, and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY, in a second generation Roman Catholic Italian family. As a boy he played baseball but could not join the Little League as it required the presence of the youth's father.

Under the name "Johnny Volume", Genzale began performing music at Quintano High School with "Johnny and the Jaywalkers".

In 1968 he started going to the Fillmore East on weekends and later a West Village bar on Bleecker Street, Nobodys. He got a job as a salesclerk at Da Nazz leather shop on Bleecker. It was on Bleecker Street that he met future Dolls Arthur Kane and Billy Murcia. He joined their band, "Actress", which eventually became the New York Dolls when David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain joined in 1971. At this time John Genzale renamed himself Johnny Thunders, after a comic book of the same name.

They recorded two critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums, The New York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon. The band was managed, for a short time, by Malcolm McLaren and was an inspiration for the Sex Pistols.

In 1975 the original line-up for the Dolls broke up. Their early recordings are still in print today and continue to influence young bands with their trash/glam/punk attitude

Post-New York Dolls

He formed The Heartbreakers with Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan, and Television bassist Richard Hell. Ex-Demons guitarist Walter Lure was soon added. After Hell unsuccessfully tried to usurp Johnny's place as lead singer, he left to form Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Hell was replaced by Billy Rath.

With Thunders leading the band, the Heartbreakers toured America and Britain, releasing one official album, L.A.M.F., in 1977. The group relocated to the UK, where their popularity was significantly greater than it was in the U.S., particularly among punk bands.

In late 1979 Thunders began performing in a band called Gang War. Other members included John Morgan, Ron Cooke, Philippe Marcade and former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer. They recorded several demos and performed live several times before disbanding, with Zodiac Records releasing an EP in 1987. Bootlegs of their demos and live performances are circulating; One semi-official live/studio vinyl only LP was released on Zodiac in 1990, credited to Thunders and Kramer and titled Gang War.

Thunders recorded a number of solo albums beginning with So Alone in 1978. The notoriously drug-fueled recording sessions featured a core band of Thunders, bassist Phil Lynott, drummer Paul Cook, and guitarist Steve Jones, with guest appearances from Chrissie Hynde, Steve Marriott, Walter Lure, Billy Rath, and Peter Perrett of The Only Ones. After its release, Thunders and Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious played in the Living Dead for a short time. The CD version of the album contains four bonus tracks, including the single "Dead or Alive".

During the early 1980s, Thunders re-formed The Heartbreakers for various tours; the group recorded their final album in 1984.

In 1985, he released Que Sera Sera, a collection of new songs that showed he could still perform convincingly. Three years later he recorded Copy Cats, an album of rock and R&B covers with vocalist Patti Palladin.

Thunders kept performing and recording until his death in 1991, but problems with heroin addiction kept his output and song writing sporadic during the 1980s. These bands would be formed ad hoc, using Jerry Nolan as a mainstay.

His final recording was a cover of "Born to Lose" with German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen, recorded 36 hours before his death.

   Death

Many rumors surround Thunders' death at the St. Peter House in New Orleans, Louisiana in April 1991. He apparently died of drug-related causes, but it has been speculated that it was the result of foul play. According to the autobiography Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones, Dee Dee Ramone took a call in New York the next day from Stevie Klasson, Johnny's rhythm guitar player. "They told me that Johnny had gotten mixed up with some bastards... who ripped him off for his methadone supply. They had given him LSD and then murdered him. He had gotten a pretty large supply of methadone in England, so he could travel and stay away from those creeps - the drug dealers, Thunders imitators, and losers like that."^[1]

What is known for certain is that Johnny's room (no. 37) was ransacked and most of his possessions were missing (passport, makeup, clothes). Rigor mortis had set in with his body positioned in an unnatural state, described by eyewitnesses as "like a pretzel", underneath a coffee table. Friends and acquaintances acknowledge he had not been using heroin for some time, relying on his methadone prescriptions. The police did not open a criminal investigation.

Singer Willy DeVille, who lived next door to the hotel in which Thunders died, described his death this way:

I don't know how the word got out that I lived next door, but all of a sudden the phone started ringing and ringing. Rolling Stone was calling, the Village Voice called, his family called, and then his guitar player called. I felt bad for all of them. It was a tragic end, and I mean, he went out in a blaze of glory, ha ha ha, so I thought I might as well make it look real good, you know, out of respect, so I just told everybody that when Johnny died he was laying down on the floor with his guitar in his hands. I made that up. When he came out of the St. Peter's Guest House, rigor mortis had set in to such an extent that his body was in a U shape. When you're laying on the floor in a fetal position, doubled over - well, when the body bag came out, it was in a U. It was pretty awful.^[2]

An autopsy was conducted by the New Orleans coroner, but served only to compound the mysteries. According to Thunders' biographer Nina Antonia as posted on the Jungle Records web site, the level of drugs found in his system was not fatal.[2] And according to the book "Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music Babylon" by Pamela Des Barres who interviewed Thunders' sister Marion, the autopsy confirmed evidence of advanced leukemia, which would explain the decline in Thunders' appearance in the final year of his life. [3] This also sheds light on the interview in Lech Kowalski's documentary "Born To Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie", where Thunders' sister Mary-Ann's husband says, "Only Johnny knew how sick he really was."

In a 1994 Melody Maker interview Thunders' manager Mick Webster described the efforts of his family, "We keep asking the New Orleans police to re-investigate, but they haven’t been particularly friendly. They seemed to think that this was just another junkie who had wandered into town and died. They simply weren’t interested." Marion claims that the original police report is largely missing and Webster further explains that the Coroner who conducted the autopsy was fired for falsifying a report in another case.

Thunders was survived by his ex-wife Julie and four children, sons John Genzale, Vito Genzale, Dino Genzale, and daughter Jamie Genzale.[4] His oldest son Vito is serving a prison sentence in the Southport Correctional Facility in New York for drug dealing, having completed a previous sentence in Attica

Studio Albums:

• So Alone - (1978)
• Diary of a Lover - (1982)
• In Cold Blood - (1983)
• Hurt Me - (1984)
• Que Sera Sera - (1985)
• Copy Cats - (1988)

    Official Live Albums & Compilations

• The New Too Much Junkie Business - (1983)
• Stations of the Cross - (1987)
• Bootlegging the Bootleggers - (1990)
• Live in Japan - (1991)
• Have Faith - (1992)
• Saddest Vacation Act. 1 - (1993)
• Saddest Vacation Act. 2 - (1993)
• Chinese Rocks: The Ultimate Thunders Live Collection - (1993)
• Add Water & Stir - (1994)
• The Studio Bootlegs - (1996)
• Belfast Rocks - (1997)
• Born Too Loose: The Best Of Johnny Thunders - (1999)
• Live at Leeds - (1999)
• Play with Fire - (2000)
• Endless Party - (2000)
• Panic on the Sunset Strip - (2000)
• Live & Wasted: Unplugged 1990 - (2001)
• Eve of Destruction - (2005)

     Official Singles & EPs

• "Dead or Alive" 7" - (1978)
• "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" 7" & 12" - (1978)
• "In Cold Blood" 7" - (1983)
• "Hurt Me" 7" - (1984)
• "Crawfish 7" & 12" - (1985)
• "Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be)" 7" & 12" - (1988) 
•  Unofficial / Bootleg Albums
• Hey Man Where Is My Guitar- (1983)
• Pipeline- (1983)
• So All Alone - (1983)
• Wanted: Dead or Alive Reward $10 - (1983)
• Cosa Nostra Never Sleeps - (1984)
• Play with Fire - (1984)
• There's a LIttle Bit of Whore in Every Girl - (1984)
• Schneckentaenze - (1985)
• Lucky Strikes Back - (1987)
• Johnny on the Rocks - (1996)
• Live Crisis - (1996)
• Fuck Off Marquee - (1997)
• Countdown Love (Demos & Unreleased Live) - (1999)
• The Party Ain't Over Yet - (2005)

     Unofficial / Bootleg Singles & EPs

• Proud to Be Pirate EP - (1983)
• Ain't Superstitious 7" - (1987)
• Critic's Choice 7" - (1992)
• Daddy Rollin' Stone 7" - (1996)
• Life Goes On 7" - (1996)
• Countdown Love 7" - (1997)
• The Fireball EP - (1999)
• The Thunderbolt EP - (1999)
• It's Great When You're Straight, Yeah EP - (2000)

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Rusty Day: Frontman for Rusty Day & The Midnighters/Amboy Dukes/Cactus/Detroit/Uncle Acid & The Permanant Damage band.

Russell "Rusty Day" Edward Davidson (born in Detroit, MI, USA) was a rock vocalist and frontman, best known for his work with the bands Amboy Dukes and Cactus. He was known for his powerful vocals and out-of-control lifestyle. Day joined Ted Nugent's band The Amboy Dukes in 1968, after their former vocalist, John Drake, was fired. Day himself had just quit his own band, Rusty Day & The Midnighters. Rusty stayed only for one album, Migration.

Cactus was initially conceived in late 1969 as a supergroup of the Vanilla Fudge rhythm section of bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice with guitarist Jeff Beck and singer Rod Stewart. However, Beck had an automobile accident and Stewart joined Ronnie Wood in the Faces. Out of frustration, Bogert and Appice formed what we now know as Cactus early 1970. The cast was complete when Day joined them on vocals and Jim McCarty joined on lead guitar.

Having made a name for himself in Detroit's rock scene as a force to be reckoned with, he took to working to try to restore one of Detroit's most legendary bands to the national stage, Detroit, the band, was formed as an offshoot of the Detroit Wheels' by members Johnny 'Bee' Badanjek & W.R.Cooke and others. Detroit's initial flame burned out quick due to many different issues going on at once. Rusty, tried his hand at restoring the glory with his line up.

Having found himself unable to really dig in with his modern versions of Cactus & Detroit, and having turned down AC/DC's request to have him join their band to replace Bon Scott, as seeing it as not quite the right fit he was seeking, thus he formed 'Uncle Acid & The Permanent Damage Band', which scored him a deal with Epic Records. Fate would not be so kind as to return his stature to him. In 1982, Day was working on an album with Uncle Acid & The Permanent Damage Band, as well as dealing cocaine. Day owed money to Ron Sanders, one of the guitar players in his band, after a minor cocaine deal. Monte "Mondo" Thomas, Day's lead guitarist and close friend, explained Sanders as: "...a madman, he was a millionaire and a real bad coke fiend." Thomas and Day both lived in Day's house in Longwood, Florida, along with Day's 11-year old son Russell. Thomas had agreed to drive a friend out of town, and was therefore not present when Sanders opened fire with a machine gun, shooting through the windows in Day's house, killing Day, his son Russell, and a house guest, Garth McRae. Ron Sanders shot himself six weeks later, after police had surrounded his house due to entirely different charges than the triple murder weeks before.

The above was taken from the Wikipedia entry.

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Steve Gaines: known mostly for his place in Southern Rock Pioneers Lynyrd Skynyrd, but prior to this he played a lead role in Rusty Day's Detroit. This man went on to define what many still try to emulate. Rusty and that era of the 'Detroit' band, were honored and blessed to have him in their fold. We are still very proud of that piece of this band's remarkable history. For more info, and official Steve Gaines website for more details and product info  www.stevegaines.com

Steven Earl Gaines (September 14, 1949 – October 20, 1977) was an American musician. He is most well-known as a guitarist and songwriter for Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Gaines was born in Miami, Oklahoma. He began playing guitar after seeing The Beatles in concert as a teenager. His first band, The Ravens, made its first recording at the famous Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Gaines later played with bands ILMO Smokehouse, Rusty Day, Detroit and Crawdada in the 1970s. He also recorded several songs with friend and producer John Ryan that were later released in 1988 by MCA Records as his only solo album, One in the Sun.

In 1976, Gaines' sister, Cassie Gaines, became a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd's female backup singers, The Honkettes. Around the same time, the band was looking for a guitarist to replace Ed King, who left the band the year before. Cassie recommended her brother, and after initial reluctance, the band allowed Gaines to join them onstage for a show in Kansas City on May 11, 1976. Although the band themselves couldn't hear Gaines' playing onstage, soundman Kevin Elson was listening through headphones and told the band that Gaines was an outstanding player. They jammed with Gaines informally a couple of more times, then invited him into the band just in time for the recording of Skynyrd's live album One More From The Road. The first of three shows recorded for the album was Gaines' third gig with the band. In an eerie coincidence, Ed King and Steve Gaines were both born on September 14, 1949.

Gaines' guitar and songwriting skills were a major revelation to the band, as proven on his one studio album, 1977's Street Survivors. Publicly and privately, Ronnie Van Zant marvelled at the vocal and instrumental skill of Skynyrd's newest member, claiming that the band would "all be in his shadow one day." Gaines' contributions included his co-lead vocal with Van Zant on the co-written "You Got That Right" (a solid hit single released after the plane crash) and the rousing guitar boogie "I Know A Little" which he had written before he joined Skynyrd. So confident was Skynyrd's leader of Gaines' abilities that the album (and some concerts) featured Gaines delivering his self-penned blues "Ain't No Good Life" - the only song in the pre-crash Skynyrd catalog to feature a lead vocalist other than Ronnie Van Zant.

Unfortunately, on October 20, 1977, three days after the album was released (and four dates into the band's most successful tour yet), a plane carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, crashed outside of Gillsburg, Mississippi. Steve Gaines was killed on impact; he was 28 years old. The crash also killed Ronnie Van Zant, Steve's sister Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, as well as pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray.^[1]

Gaines was cremated and buried in Orange Park, Florida in 1977, but was relocated to an undisclosed location after vandals broke into his and bandmate Ronnie Van Zant's tombs on June 29, 2000. Their mausoleums remain as memorials for fans to visit.

Gaines is the subject of the 2001 song "Cassie's Brother" by rock band Drive-By Truckers.

Less than two years after the plane crash, the Gaines' mother, Cassie LaRue Gaines, was killed in an automobile accident near the cemetery where Steve and Cassie were buried. She was buried near her children.

"This is like a start of what I want to do. This is the beginning. I hope that I can be good enough to keep on going... This is all I ever dreamed about, you know? Just doing this." October 17, 1977 interview, the day Street Survivors was released. He was killed three days later in the plane crash.

This entry from Wikipedia.

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Ron Asheton: The Guitar Fury that helped put The Stooges on the map. also played with Destroy All Monsters/New Order/Grinder and more. For more info/updates:  www.iggypop.org/ronasheton.html

Ron Asheton
Asheton (left) and Iggy Pop at concert, 2008
Background information
Birth name	Ronald Franklin Asheton
Born	July 17, 1948(1948-07-17) Washington D.C.[1], United States
Died	c. January 6, 2009 (aged 60) Ann Arbor, Michigan
Genre(s)	Hard rock, protopunk
Occupation(s)	Musician, Songwriter, Guitarist, Actor
Instrument(s)	Guitar, Bass, Accordion
Years active	1963–2009
Label(s)	Elektra, Columbia, Virgin
Associated acts	The Stooges, The New Order, Destroy All Monsters, New Race, Dark Carnival

Ronald Frank Asheton (July 17, 1948 – c. January 6, 2009)^[2] was an American guitarist and co-songwriter with Iggy Pop for the rock band The Stooges.

Asheton was born in Washington D.C.^[3] He already had five years of practice on the accordion behind him when he began playing guitar at age 10. Asheton was on the Stooges first two albums, and later appeared as bassist for their third, Raw Power, when he was replaced in both instrument and songwriting prominence by The Stooges' new guitar player, James Williamson. When the Stooges reformed, however, he once again appeared as the band's guitarist.

Apart from The Stooges, Asheton also played in the bands The New Order (not the UK band New Order), Destroy All Monsters, Dark Carnival, New Race, and recently with Mike Watt of the Minutemen, J. Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.), Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Mark Arm of Mudhoney among others (as The Wylde Ratttz), on the soundtrack for the Todd Haynes film Velvet Goldmine, which starred Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Asheton also acted, appearing with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre star Gunnar Hansen in Mosquito which came out in 1995 as well as in two other films, Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo and Legion of the Night.

Asheton is ranked as number 29 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.^[4]

Asheton was found dead in his bed by police at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 6, 2009, apparently having died of a heart attack several days earlier. Police were summoned to Asheton's house by his personal assistant, who had failed to reach him for several days.^[5]

With the Stooges

• The Stooges (1969)
• Fun House (1970)
• Raw Power (1973)
• The Weirdness (2007)

With The New Order

• New Order (1977)
• Victim Of Circumstance (1989)
• Declaration of War (1990)

With Destroy All Monsters

• November 22nd 1963 (1989)
• Bored (1999) - recorded in 1978

With New Race

• The First and Last (1982)
• The First To Pay (1989)
• The Second Wave (1990)

With Dark Carnival

• Live - Welcome to Show Business (1990)
• Greatest Show in Detroit (1991)
• Last Great Ride (1996)

With the Empty Set

• Thin, Slim & None/Flunkie (1996)

With The Powertrane

• Ann Arbor Revival Meeting (2003)

Asheton is credited for helping to write the song "Hit Them Again" on the album Radios Appear (1977) by Radio Birdman, as well as one track that can be heard at the end of the movie Mosquito. Some other tracks Asheton wrote had been recorded by the group "Wylde Rattz", for the original score of the movie Velvet Goldmine, but only one song was featured on the soundtrack (1998), as well as another on Beyond Cyberpunk a Wayne Kramer (MC5) assembled CD compilation(2001).

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Fred 'Sonic' Smith: The Sonic Revelator Lives on....Forever to be remembered for the place he held in the Motor City 5(MC5) as well as his own 'Sonic Rendevous Band' and more. A legend whose memeory is called any time we hear the 'Bells of Good Friday' Toll. Checkout this site here for more details on this legendary Rocker...: www.sonicsrendezvous.com

Fred "Sonic" Smith (September 13, 1949 – November 4, 1994) was an American guitarist who is best known as a member of the band MC5. He later went on to form Sonic's Rendezvous Band, which released one single, "City Slang", during Fred's lifetime.^[1]

Fred Smith was born in West Virginia. He was married to singer and poet Patti Smith, until a sudden fatal heart attack, at the age of forty five. He and Patti collaborated on her 1988 album Dream of Life. Patti Smith's 1996 album Gone Again features a tribute to her late husband.

The Smiths had a son Jackson born 1982 and a daughter Jesse born 1987. Jackson Smith formerly played guitar in the Michigan based band, Back in Spades and played bass guitar with The Paybacks. Jesse plays keyboards and sings with the New York City based band Mumu Worthy.

The band Sonic Youth took its name from Smith's nickname.

www.SonicRendevousBand.net