RICK Derringer, the sixties guitar hero, singer and producer who performed on KISS’s Lick It Up album, has died. He was 77.
Derringer made his name while still a teenager when his band The McCoys hit paydirt with their single “Hang On Sloopy”, which went to number one in 1965.
He later joined Johnny Winter’s band and then Edgar Winter’s White Trash. His 1973 solo album All American Boy featured the single “Rock’n’Roll Hoochie Koo”.
Derringer played lead on Alice Cooper’s iconic 1971 single “Under My Wheels” and contributed to “I’m Eighteen”, as well as writing the political anthem recorded by Hulk Hogan, “I’m A Real American”.
His KISS connections is that he was credited in a box set with playing on “Larger Than Life” from Alive II – but he did not mention it in his autobiography. He later told acquaintances he did play at the recording of the song but that contribution may not have been used.
There is no contention about his involvement in the searing solo in “Exciter” off 1983’s Lick It Up, though.
Derringer was with his longtime friend and carer, Tony Wilson, and his wife Jenda when he died in a Ormond Beach, Florida hospital. No cause of death was given but he been suffering multiple health issues in recent months.
Main image: Wikipedia
