Kevin DuBrow
Encyclopedia
Kevin Mark DuBrow was an American
rock singer best known as the lead vocalist of the Heavy Metal
band Quiet Riot
from 1975 until his death in 2007. On December 10, 2007, media reported that DuBrow had been pronounced dead on the afternoon of November 25, 2007, and that the cause of death was cocaine
overdose.
, and eventually settled in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys
at age 13. At some time, he learned to play a twelve-string guitar. DuBrow was raised Jewish and had the nickname "Butch" growing up. DuBrow's first band consisted of 11-year-olds that played only one gig to an audience of senior citizens who were not particularly fond of rock music. By the time he was in his mid-teens he had developed an appreciation for a number of British
rock acts including the Small Faces, Slade
, Spooky Tooth
, Rod Stewart
and Humble Pie
. It was the latter of those influences that would leave the biggest impact on DuBrow and act as a compass in his musical career.
and bassist Kelly Garni
(who would be replaced by Rudy Sarzo
) in 1975, who recruited DuBrow and drummer Drew Forsyth. This lineup disbanded in 1980 when Rhoads went on to join Ozzy Osbourne
's band, with Rhoads personally enlisting Greg Leon as his replacement. For a time the band's name was changed to DuBrow, which had a rotating lineup of members including Leon, Chuck Wright
, Frankie Banali
, and brothers Tony and Carlos Cavazo
. After Rhoads' death in a plane crash in 1982 while on tour with Osbourne, DuBrow changed the name of the band back to Quiet Riot. Rudy Sarzo left Osbourne's band and rejoined Quiet Riot shortly before the release of Metal Health
, which went to the top of the charts, making Quiet Riot the first metal band to achieve number one status on their (U.S. release) debut album. Their singles included "Cum on Feel the Noize
" (originally written and recorded by English band Slade in 1973), and "Metal Health (Bang Your Head)".
Shortly after his February 1987 departure from Quiet Riot, which was decided during a Japanese tour in December 1986, DuBrow signed with Kim Richards for personal management. With Richards' help, DuBrow formed and began recording with a new band named "Pretty Women." Richards, who was working on the soundtrack for the Blake Edwards
directed movie "Switch" at the time, arranged for the DuBrow penned "Slam Dunk" to be included on the movie's soundtrack.
In 1991, DuBrow regrouped with his Quiet Riot bandmate Carlos Cavazo in a new band called Heat. (Quiet Riot had continued on in 1988 with new singer Paul Shortino
of Rough Cutt
but by this time were disbanded.) By 1993, Heat had renamed themselves Quiet Riot and rejoined with Frankie Banali on drums.
Quiet Riot continued through the 90s in several different incarnations. They released several albums including Terrified, Down to the Bone, Alive and Well and Guilty Pleasures.
In 2004, DuBrow recorded a collection of cover version
s for his first solo album, In for the Kill
. The album was recorded in DuBrow's hometown Las Vegas, Nevada.
DuBrow also worked as a DJ for the Rock Station in Las Vegas, KOMP 92.3
During 2006, Quiet Riot worked on a new studio album that was expected to be released in either 2006 or 2007. The band stated that they had set no timetable for the release of the album, that they were financing the project themselves, and that it would be released when they saw fit and on their terms.
The album, Rehab, was released on October 3, 2006. The lineup on the album was DuBrow, Frankie Banali, Tony Franklin, and Neil Citron. Singer Glenn Hughes also made a guest vocal appearance on the album.
's The Metal Circus. Banali wrote:
Initial reports were confirmed by local authorities and reported by major news outlets on November 26, 2007. The cause of death was determined to be an accidental overdose of cocaine. KTNV
in Las Vegas
reported that he had died about six days before his discovery, November 19, 2007. DuBrow was buried in Pacific View Cemetery in Corona del Mar, California, next to his stepfather, Harold Mandell. A rabbi presided over his funeral service on November 30, 2007.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rock singer best known as the lead vocalist of the Heavy Metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot is an American Heavy Metal band. They are best known for their hit singles "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel the Noize". They were founded in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni, under the original name Mach 1, before changing the name to Little Women and finally Quiet...
from 1975 until his death in 2007. On December 10, 2007, media reported that DuBrow had been pronounced dead on the afternoon of November 25, 2007, and that the cause of death was cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
overdose.
Early life
DuBrow grew up in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, and eventually settled in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys
Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California
Van Nuys is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.-History:Look at the two photos of Van Nuys' first year—and then listen to what the Los Angeles Times wrote on February 23, 1911, the day after the Van Nuys town lot auction--"Between dawn and dusk, in the...
at age 13. At some time, he learned to play a twelve-string guitar. DuBrow was raised Jewish and had the nickname "Butch" growing up. DuBrow's first band consisted of 11-year-olds that played only one gig to an audience of senior citizens who were not particularly fond of rock music. By the time he was in his mid-teens he had developed an appreciation for a number of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
rock acts including the Small Faces, Slade
Slade
Slade are an English rock band from Wolverhampton, who rose to prominence during the glam rock era of the early 1970s. With 17 consecutive Top 20 hits and six number ones, the British Hit Singles & Albums names them as the most successful British group of the 1970s based on sales of singles...
, Spooky Tooth
Spooky Tooth
Spooky Tooth are an English rock band principally active, with intermittent breakups, between 1967 to 1974. In recent years, the band has been reconstituted at various points, and continues to perform occasionally.-Career:...
, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
and Humble Pie
Humble Pie (band)
Humble Pie was a rock band from England, finding success both in the UK and the US. They are remembered for songs such as "Black Coffee" "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor", and "Natural Born Bugie"...
. It was the latter of those influences that would leave the biggest impact on DuBrow and act as a compass in his musical career.
With Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot was formed by Randy RhoadsRandy Rhoads
Randall William "Randy" Rhoads was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot. A devoted student of classical guitar, Rhoads often combined his classical music influences with his own heavy metal style. While on tour with Ozzy Osbourne, he would seek out...
and bassist Kelly Garni
Kelly Garni
Kelly Garni is a Hard rock musician and photographer, who is best known for playing in the band Quiet Riot.Born in Los Angeles in 1957, Garni's family moved to Burbank, CA in the early 1970s, where he met Randy Rhoads...
(who would be replaced by Rudy Sarzo
Rudy Sarzo
Rudy Sarzo is a Cuban American hard rock/heavy metal bassist. Sarzo has played with many well known heavy metal acts including Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Manic Eden, Dio and Blue Öyster Cult.-Early life:...
) in 1975, who recruited DuBrow and drummer Drew Forsyth. This lineup disbanded in 1980 when Rhoads went on to join Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
's band, with Rhoads personally enlisting Greg Leon as his replacement. For a time the band's name was changed to DuBrow, which had a rotating lineup of members including Leon, Chuck Wright
Chuck Wright
Chuck Wright is an American bassist, best known as the bassist of heavy metal band Quiet Riot. He originally joined Quiet Riot in 1982, performing bass on several tracks for their hit album, Metal Health, as well as contributing backing vocals. He left and rejoined Quiet Riot multiple times,...
, Frankie Banali
Frankie Banali
Frankie Banali is an American rock drummer, best known for his work with multi-platinum heavy metal band Quiet Riot. He has been the band's manager during since 1994. He played drums in the heavy metal band W.A.S.P., as well as with Billy Idol...
, and brothers Tony and Carlos Cavazo
Carlos Cavazo
Carlos Cavazo is a Mexican-born American guitarist best known as the guitarist for Quiet Riot during their commercial peak. Born July 8, 1957, Cavazo is originally from Mexico City where their first band with his brother Antonio Cavazo was called Speed of Light...
. After Rhoads' death in a plane crash in 1982 while on tour with Osbourne, DuBrow changed the name of the band back to Quiet Riot. Rudy Sarzo left Osbourne's band and rejoined Quiet Riot shortly before the release of Metal Health
Metal Health
Metal Health is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Quiet Riot. It was released on March 11, 1983, bolstered by the #5 hit "Cum on Feel the Noize" and the #31 hit "Metal Health". It knocked The Police's Synchronicity out of #1 in the US. The album went on to sell over six million...
, which went to the top of the charts, making Quiet Riot the first metal band to achieve number one status on their (U.S. release) debut album. Their singles included "Cum on Feel the Noize
Cum on Feel the Noize
"Cum On Feel the Noize" is a rock song originally released by Slade in 1973.Written by Jim Lea and Noddy Holder and produced by Chas Chandler, "Cum On Feel the Noize" was Slade's fourth number-one single in the UK and their first to enter straight at number one...
" (originally written and recorded by English band Slade in 1973), and "Metal Health (Bang Your Head)".
Shortly after his February 1987 departure from Quiet Riot, which was decided during a Japanese tour in December 1986, DuBrow signed with Kim Richards for personal management. With Richards' help, DuBrow formed and began recording with a new band named "Pretty Women." Richards, who was working on the soundtrack for the Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...
directed movie "Switch" at the time, arranged for the DuBrow penned "Slam Dunk" to be included on the movie's soundtrack.
In 1991, DuBrow regrouped with his Quiet Riot bandmate Carlos Cavazo in a new band called Heat. (Quiet Riot had continued on in 1988 with new singer Paul Shortino
Paul Shortino
Paul Shortino is a singer who has sung for several bands, including Rough Cutt/The Cutt, Quiet Riot, Bad Boyz, and Shortino. He's recorded with JK Northrup as Shortino/Northrup. He's also recorded as a solo artist. He also did the theme song for Dr...
of Rough Cutt
Rough Cutt
Rough Cutt was an American heavy metal band from San Diego, California in the 1980s. They were based in Los Angeles after signing a recording contract with Warner Brothers...
but by this time were disbanded.) By 1993, Heat had renamed themselves Quiet Riot and rejoined with Frankie Banali on drums.
Quiet Riot continued through the 90s in several different incarnations. They released several albums including Terrified, Down to the Bone, Alive and Well and Guilty Pleasures.
In 2004, DuBrow recorded a collection of cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s for his first solo album, In for the Kill
In for the Kill (Kevin DuBrow album)
In for the Kill is a 2004 covers album by Quiet Riot vocalist Kevin DuBrow, who died in November 2007.It is his only solo album before his death in 2007...
. The album was recorded in DuBrow's hometown Las Vegas, Nevada.
DuBrow also worked as a DJ for the Rock Station in Las Vegas, KOMP 92.3
During 2006, Quiet Riot worked on a new studio album that was expected to be released in either 2006 or 2007. The band stated that they had set no timetable for the release of the album, that they were financing the project themselves, and that it would be released when they saw fit and on their terms.
The album, Rehab, was released on October 3, 2006. The lineup on the album was DuBrow, Frankie Banali, Tony Franklin, and Neil Citron. Singer Glenn Hughes also made a guest vocal appearance on the album.
Death
On November 25, 2007, The Vegas Eye reported on its website that DuBrow had been found dead that day in his house in Las Vegas. Drummer Frankie Banali confirmed DuBrow's death in an email to SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
's The Metal Circus. Banali wrote:
Initial reports were confirmed by local authorities and reported by major news outlets on November 26, 2007. The cause of death was determined to be an accidental overdose of cocaine. KTNV
KTNV
KTNV-TV, channel 13, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Las Vegas, Nevada which is owned by Journal Broadcast Group and serves as the ABC affiliate for the Las Vegas Valley, Southern Nevada and northwest Arizona...
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
reported that he had died about six days before his discovery, November 19, 2007. DuBrow was buried in Pacific View Cemetery in Corona del Mar, California, next to his stepfather, Harold Mandell. A rabbi presided over his funeral service on November 30, 2007.
With Quiet Riot
- 1978 Quiet Riot
- 1979 Quiet Riot IIQuiet Riot IIQuiet Riot II is the second studio album by heavy metal band Quiet Riot. As with their first album, it was a Japan-only release. Although Rudy Sarzo is pictured and credited, the recordings were made while bassist Kelly Garni was still in the band...
- 1983 Metal HealthMetal HealthMetal Health is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Quiet Riot. It was released on March 11, 1983, bolstered by the #5 hit "Cum on Feel the Noize" and the #31 hit "Metal Health". It knocked The Police's Synchronicity out of #1 in the US. The album went on to sell over six million...
- 1984 Condition CriticalCondition CriticalCondition Critical is the fourth studio album by Quiet Riot. The album was released in 1984. It was also given an infamous two-word review in Rolling Stone magazine: "Condition terminal."...
- 1986 QRIII
- 1993 TerrifiedTerrifiedTerrified is the seventh album Quiet Riot recorded for Charles Band's movie Dollman vs. Demonic Toys, and was released on Moonstone Records, the soundtrack off-shoot of Band's film company Full Moon Entertainment.It features bassist Kenny Hillery, former mate of DuBrow and Cavazo's in the band Heat...
- 1995 Down to the BoneDown to the Bone (album)Down to the Bone is Quiet Riot's eighth album recorded at Ocean Studios, Burbank Calif., The Track House, Van Nuys, Calif., and Paramount Studios, Hollywood, California.-Track listing:All tracks by Frankie Banali, Cavazo, DuBrow except were noted...
- 1999 Alive and WellAlive and Well (Quiet Riot album)Alive and Well is a the ninth studio album by heavy metal band Quiet Riot. It was a reunion of the classic 80's Quiet Riot lineup of Kevin DuBrow, Rudy Sarzo, Carlos Cavazo, and Frankie Banali...
- 2001 Guilty PleasuresGuilty Pleasures (Quiet Riot album)Guilty Pleasures is the 10th album by Quiet Riot released in 2001. It is the last to feature guitarist Carlos Cavazo and bassist Rudy Sarzo.-Track listing:All songs written by Kevin DuBrow, Carlos Cavazo, Rudy Sarzo, and Frankie Banali....
- 2006 RehabRehab (Quiet Riot album)Rehab is the 11th album released from the heavy metal band Quiet Riot in 2006. It is their first studio release since 2001's Guilty Pleasures. The album is a departure from their "party-rock" past and offers a more mature sound...
Solo
- 1985 Hear 'n AidHear 'n AidHear 'n Aid was a one-off project of the heavy metal/hard rock scene of the 1980s to raise money for famine relief in Africa. According to Ronnie James Dio's MySpace profile, the project raised $1 million within a year.- Background :...
"Stars" - 1998 Thunderbolt: A Tribute to AC/DC - cover version of "Highway to HellHighway to Hell (song)"Highway to Hell" is the opening track of AC/DC's 1979 album Highway to Hell and the twelfth track on AC/DC Live. It was initially released as a single in 1979....
" - 1998 The Side Effects of Napalm by The Neanderthal Spongecake. Guest vocals on remake of "Metal Health '98Metal Health (song)"Metal Health", sometimes listed as "Metal Health "; "Bang Your Head"; or, as it was listed on the Billboard Hot 100, "Bang Your Head ," is a song by American heavy metal band Quiet Riot on their breakthrough album of the same name. The song is one of their best known hits and received constant MTV...
" - Appetite for Reconstruction – cover version of "Welcome to the JungleWelcome to the Jungle"Welcome to the Jungle" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on its 1987 debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction. It was released as the band's second single on October 3, 1987, and reached number #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number #24 on the UK Singles Chart...
" on Appetite for Reconstruction, a Guns N' RosesGuns N' RosesGuns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
tributeTributeA tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
album - 2004 In for the KillIn for the Kill (Kevin DuBrow album)In for the Kill is a 2004 covers album by Quiet Riot vocalist Kevin DuBrow, who died in November 2007.It is his only solo album before his death in 2007...