Rod Price
Encyclopedia
Rod Price was an English
guitarist
who was best known for his work with the rock band
Foghat
. He was known as 'The Magician Of Slide', and 'Slide King Of Rock And Roll', due to his slide guitar
playing.
blues
band
Black Cat Bones (replacing Paul Kossoff
), which recorded
one album
, Barbed Wire Sandwich
. The album was released at the end of 1969, when British blues was being supplanted by rock
, and though artistically successful it was a commercial failure. The band dissolved, and Price joined Foghat when the group was first formed in London
in 1971. He played on the band's first ten albums, released from 1972 through to 1980. His signature slide playing ability helped propel the band to being one of the most successful rock groups in the United States during the 1970s. His slide playing was featured distinctly on Foghat song
s "Drivin' Wheel", "Stone Blue", and the group's biggest hit, "Slow Ride
", which was a top 20 hit
in 1976. Price's final performance with Foghat was at the Philadelphia Spectrum on 16 November 1980.
He was replaced by guitarist Erik Cartwright
.
Price virtually disappeared from the music business until 1990, when he briefly joined forces with Foghat vocalist Dave Peverett
. Foghat had actually split a few years after Price left, and drummer Roger Earl
had reformed the band without Peverett, who decided to start up his own version of the band and invited Price to participate. Price was in and out of the band for the next couple of years, but agreed to commit totally to a reunion featuring all four original Foghat members in 1993.
Foghat then released Return Of The Boogie Men in September 1994. The album failed to gain as much commercial success as the band had previously earned, but nevertheless they hit the road and began touring regularly across North America
, rebuilding their reputation as an excellent live act. Foghat released the Road Cases CD
in 1998, a live recording which further cemented Price's slide virtuosity. A DVD
entitled Two Centuries Of Boogie, recorded at a 1996 concert in Dayton
, Ohio
gives a close-up and first-hand view of Price's guitar abilities. It also features a very in-depth interview with the musician himself, as well as other members of Foghat.
Price once again left Foghat in 1999, after vocalist Dave Peverett was diagnosed with cancer
. The singer returned to the band after several months of recuperation, but by this point Price had decided he wanted to step away from full-time road work and parted company with Foghat. He was replaced by guitarist Bryan Bassett.
Price began a solo career at the beginning of the 21st century, and returned to his blues roots. He released two CDs, Open (2002) and West Four (2003). He toured and performed in blues clubs across the United States, and was featured at guitar seminars and workshops as well during this period.
Price died at his home in Wilton
, New Hampshire
, on 22 March 2005, after he fell down a flight of stairs when suffering a heart attack
. He was survived by his wife Jackie and five children.
Price was married to Robyn Renzi in the 1970s but they divorced in 1979. The marriage produced no children. Before his marriage to Renzi, Price dated Brandy Worthers and Geraldine Edwards, the woman Almost Famous
was written about. On more than one occasion, Price invited Edwards and her friends onstage to dance during Foghat's live performances.
During his long career, Price also collaborated with Shaky Vic's Blues Band, Champion Jack Dupree
, Duster Bennett
, Eddie Kirkland
, Muddy Waters
, John Lee Hooker
, Willie Dixon
and David "Honeyboy" Edwards.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
who was best known for his work with the rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
Foghat
Foghat
Foghat are a British rock band that had their peak success in the mid- to late-1970s. Their style can be described as "blues-rock," or boogie-rock dominated by electric and electric slide guitar. The band has achieved five gold records...
. He was known as 'The Magician Of Slide', and 'Slide King Of Rock And Roll', due to his slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
playing.
Career
At the age of 21, Price joined the BritishUnited 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...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
Black Cat Bones (replacing Paul Kossoff
Paul Kossoff
Paul Francis Kossoff was an English rock guitarist best known as a member of the band Free.Kossoff was ranked 51st in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" -Early days:...
), which recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
one album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Barbed Wire Sandwich
Barbed Wire Sandwich
Barbed Wire Sandwich is a progressive heavy blues rock album released by Black Cat Bones in November 1969. The original vinyl version of the album is now highly sought after by collectors of rock and heavy blues music of the late 1960s and 1970s....
. The album was released at the end of 1969, when British blues was being supplanted by rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and though artistically successful it was a commercial failure. The band dissolved, and Price joined Foghat when the group was first formed in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1971. He played on the band's first ten albums, released from 1972 through to 1980. His signature slide playing ability helped propel the band to being one of the most successful rock groups in the United States during the 1970s. His slide playing was featured distinctly on Foghat song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
s "Drivin' Wheel", "Stone Blue", and the group's biggest hit, "Slow Ride
Slow Ride
"Slow Ride" is the title of a song composed by "Lonesome" Dave Peverett and recorded by the British rock band Foghat, appearing on their fifth album Fool for the City . This was Foghat's top single, peaking at number 20. It also appears on Foghat Live , which was their best selling album at over...
", which was a top 20 hit
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
in 1976. Price's final performance with Foghat was at the Philadelphia Spectrum on 16 November 1980.
He was replaced by guitarist Erik Cartwright
Erik Cartwright
Erik Cartwright is an American rock guitarist.He was born July 10, 1950 in New York, New York and is best known for playing with Foghat. Cartwright replaced original Foghat guitarist Rod Price in 1981...
.
Price virtually disappeared from the music business until 1990, when he briefly joined forces with Foghat vocalist Dave Peverett
Dave Peverett
David Peverett or Lonesome Dave was a British musician. He is best known as the original singer and rhythm guitarist of Foghat, which he founded following his tenure in Savoy Brown....
. Foghat had actually split a few years after Price left, and drummer Roger Earl
Roger Earl
Roger Earl is the drummer of the band Foghat, famed for their relentless touring and strong live performances...
had reformed the band without Peverett, who decided to start up his own version of the band and invited Price to participate. Price was in and out of the band for the next couple of years, but agreed to commit totally to a reunion featuring all four original Foghat members in 1993.
Foghat then released Return Of The Boogie Men in September 1994. The album failed to gain as much commercial success as the band had previously earned, but nevertheless they hit the road and began touring regularly across North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, rebuilding their reputation as an excellent live act. Foghat released the Road Cases CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
in 1998, a live recording which further cemented Price's slide virtuosity. A DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
entitled Two Centuries Of Boogie, recorded at a 1996 concert in Dayton
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
gives a close-up and first-hand view of Price's guitar abilities. It also features a very in-depth interview with the musician himself, as well as other members of Foghat.
Price once again left Foghat in 1999, after vocalist Dave Peverett was diagnosed with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
. The singer returned to the band after several months of recuperation, but by this point Price had decided he wanted to step away from full-time road work and parted company with Foghat. He was replaced by guitarist Bryan Bassett.
Price began a solo career at the beginning of the 21st century, and returned to his blues roots. He released two CDs, Open (2002) and West Four (2003). He toured and performed in blues clubs across the United States, and was featured at guitar seminars and workshops as well during this period.
Price died at his home in Wilton
Wilton, New Hampshire
- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there were 3,743 people, 1,410 households, and 1,023 families living in the town. The population density was 145.3 people per square mile . There were 1,451 housing units at an average density of 56.3 per square mile...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, on 22 March 2005, after he fell down a flight of stairs when suffering a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
. He was survived by his wife Jackie and five children.
Price was married to Robyn Renzi in the 1970s but they divorced in 1979. The marriage produced no children. Before his marriage to Renzi, Price dated Brandy Worthers and Geraldine Edwards, the woman Almost Famous
Almost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
was written about. On more than one occasion, Price invited Edwards and her friends onstage to dance during Foghat's live performances.
During his long career, Price also collaborated with Shaky Vic's Blues Band, Champion Jack Dupree
Champion Jack Dupree
William Thomas Dupree, best known as Champion Jack Dupree, was an American blues pianist. His birth date is disputed, given as July 4, July 10, and July 23, in the years 1908, 1909, or 1910. He died on January 21, 1992.-Biography:...
, Duster Bennett
Duster Bennett
Anthony "Duster" Bennett was a British blues singer and musician. Based around London, his first album Smiling Like I'm Happy saw him playing as a one-man band, playing a bass drum with his foot and blowing a harmonica on a rack while strumming a 1952 Les Paul Goldtop guitar given to him in 1968...
, Eddie Kirkland
Eddie Kirkland
Eddie Kirkland was an American electric blues guitarist, harmonicist, singer, and songwriter.Kirkland, known as the "Gypsy of the Blues" for his rigorous touring schedules, played and toured with John Lee Hooker from 1949 to 1962...
, Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
, Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon
William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...
and David "Honeyboy" Edwards.