The frontman of the metal band Quiet Riot, Kevin Dubrow, was found dead yesterday in Las Vegas at the age of 52. The timing for me was odd, because I watched a couple of installments of VH1's History of Heavy Metal which featured an interview with Dubrow and his bandmates. Quiet Riot was the first metal band from the Los Angeles Sunset Strip scene to hit it big in the 80's, and paved the way, for better or worse, for the flash flood of hair from LA.
I got a chance to see Quiet Riot play a few years back in Sioux City. I found the show entertaining, but in a sad way. It was entertaining in the sense that they played well, but sad in the sense that Dubrow kept mentioning former guitarist Randy Rhodes throughout the show. For those unfamiliar with QR, Randy Rhoads, the great guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne before Rhoads' death in 1982, originally played with QR but was long gone by the time QR made their popular splash. My preference, as a fan of that genre of music, is that the band would not feel it had to bring up Rhoads' name but, instead, focus on the current members.
In any case, peace be with you, KD.
Update: here is Kevin's MySpace page. Here is an LA Times article about his death.