The 'Mississippi Queen' singer was confirmed dead by his brother, Larry West Weinstein, to Rolling Stone on Wednesday, Dec 23.
Leslie West, front man and guitarist for staple classic rock powerhouse Mountain, was rushed to hospitals early Monday morning after exhibiting signs of cardiac arrest, where he unfortunately never regained consciousness.
West, who was born Leslie Weinstein, on October 22, 1945, grew up in New York, coming up in the 60's world of free love, good rock, and Woodstock.
Rolling Stone reports; "[West] was a founding member of the Vagrants, a blue-eyed soul garage band of the mid- Sixties. The group (which also included his brother Larry on bass) scored two minor hits, “I Can’t Make a Friend” and a cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” (released just before Aretha Franklin’s titanic version), before West left the band.
A turning point, he once said, was seeing Cream at the Village Theatre (later the Fillmore East) in 1967. “My brother said to me, ‘Let’s take some acid before we go,’ ” West told Blues Rock Review in 2015. “So we took LSD and all of a sudden the curtain opens up and I hear them playing ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ and I see Eric Clapton and his buckskin jacket. I said, ‘Oh my God, we really suck.’ After that, I started really practicing and practicing.”
With the help of Cream producer and bass player Felix Pappalardi, who met West when he was producing the Vagrants, West made a solo album, Mountain. Mountain also became the name of the band the two men formed – “because I was so fat!” West later joked."
Please support bands during the COVID-19 pandemic. Buy tickets to live shows, buy official merchandise, anything you can do to support our favorite artists.
Subscribe and Follow Us on social media to stay up-to-date with Jammed Radar's featured articles
Written by Steve Knudsen
(special thanks to Rollingstone.com )
留言