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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ronnie Montrose died in 2012 after a prolonged struggle with prostate cancer and that is what music fans everywhere were led to believe. \u00a0Later reports indicated that he had taken his own life, but in that he had resolved to battled the disease without chemotherapy or invasive procedures, \u00a0one undoubtedly led to the other. \u00a0When his former bandmates began to reminisce about him after his death, two major themes emerged. \u00a0The first was the near deification of him as a guitar player. \u00a0The second theme was his habit of not getting along with lead singers which contributed to his penchant for disbanding just when the particular group he was in was on the cusp of stardom. \u00a0Even those closest to him in the industry echoed the statement, \u201cHe seemed to be allergic to success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ronnie Montrose was born in San Francisco but did not get started with guitar until the age of 17 when he was living in Denver, Colorado. \u00a0By 1967\u2019s Summer of Love, he was 20 years old and back in San Francisco. \u00a0His band Sawbuck was headquartered in a Victorian mansion called Thin Blue where he met the likes of Buddy Miles and Jimi Hendrix. \u00a0His first upwardly mobile break in the music business came as he was doing carpentry work at the legendary Bill Graham\u2019s Fillmore. \u00a0He happened to be there when Van Morrison\u2019s manager called seeking guitarists to audition for the singer\u2019s band. \u00a0While dozens of guitarists auditioned, Montrose claimed he got the gig because when Morrison found out he was from Colorado, his enchantment with cowboys tipped the scale in Ronnie\u2019s favor. \u00a0J.Geils Band singer Peter Wolf later told Montrose that an excited Morrison had called him up at the time and said, \u201cWolf, I got a cowboy.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Ted Templeton (former drummer for the band Harpers Bizarre and future legendary record producer) was working with Morrison on his <\/span>Tupelo Honey<\/span><\/i> record and told Montrose to look him up if he ever wanted to do his own project. \u00a0Ronnie wouldn\u2019t forget the offer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It may have been friction with Morrison or the rumor that Morrison\u2019s wife \u201ctook a shine\u201d to Montrose, but either way, he found himself out of the band after recording two albums with Morrison. \u00a0Bassist Bill Church said things began to go south when he and Montrose came to the front of the stage during a gig at UCLA\u2019s Pauley Pavilion. \u00a0One simply did not step out in front of Morrison during a performance. \u00a0Church\u2019s faux paus was forgiven because he was flying on pain meds he was taking for an ankle injury but Montrose\u2019s was not. The longest surviving account says that at mid-tour, \u00a0Morrison finally told him, \u201cHey Ronnie, when the bus stops, somebody\u2019s gotta get off,\u201d leaving no doubt that it would be Montrose. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Summoned to New York to audition for Edgar Winter\u2019s group, he joined a band that was already experiencing widespread success on the charts. \u00a0Ronnie found that his time with Morrison and encouragement from Winter to experiment during live shows helped him develop his signature guitar sound. \u00a0His star was rising, but dark clouds were again building on the horizon. \u00a0As <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine\u2019s <\/span><\/i>Jaan Uhelszki put it in an interview piece published shortly after his death, \u201cIt would be safe to say that Montrose was in Winter\u2019s band, but not of it. \u00a0There was always something removed about the guitarist, holding himself at some distance from the rhythm section.\u201d \u00a0Winter loved the way Montrose took the music to another level, but Montrose\u2019s feelings toward the lead singer were something else. \u00a0When he got his copy of the Gold Record for the <\/span>They Only Come Out at Night<\/span><\/i> album, he pried it open and cut Winter\u2019s picture out of the small copy of the album cover art that was included with the gold disk. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When it was time to move on, Templeton suggested that Montrose hook up with Sammy Hagar again offering his services producing an album. \u00a0His faith in the pairing resulted in the self titled <\/span>Montrose<\/span><\/i> album that guitar greats not only praise to this day, but have borrowed from in great slabs of tone and feel. \u00a0Montrose and Hagar should have been the next Jagger\/Richards, Van Halen\/Roth, Tyler\/Perry, or Page\/Plant musical super duo. \u00a0Hagar now admits that he had unintentional stepped on Ronnie\u2019s toes because he wanted the band to be big but didn\u2019t realize Montrose wasn\u2019t one to share the spotlight. \u00a0Just as the band\u2019s profile began to skyrocket, he fired Hagar, and then the rest of the band (that included one of Montrose\u2019s oldest friends, bassist Bill Church and drummer Denny Carmassi). \u00a0All agree that they had something special and still don\u2019t quite understand why Montrose \u201ckilled the band.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Montrose didn\u2019t get along with band leaders, but it seems that he at times treated his own Montrose band members worse than his former employers had treated him. \u00a0He invited his old Sawbuck and Van Morrison bandmate Church to audition for Montrose, but made him sit through the auditions for a host of other hopefuls. \u00a0Hager finally pointed out, \u201c\u2018That guy was cool, but Bill Church, man, he\u2019s like our buddy, man. \u00a0He\u2019s like cool, he\u2019s fun.\u2019 \u00a0They were friends, but I think Ronnie just wanted to torture him.\u201d \u00a0Hager finally talked Church into the band but Montrose fired him after the first album and tour. \u00a0Hagar\u2019s own dismissal came in Europe when he was battling food poisoning between stops. \u00a0Tension had been building as evidenced by Montrose telling Sammy to stay on his own side of the stage, but the firing was still unexpected. \u00a0Hagar described the end to Uhelszki: \u00a0\u201cWe pulled up to the Olympia Theater where we were headlining two nights, and Ronnie turns and leans over the front seat and says \u2018After tonight I\u2019m quitting the band. \u00a0What are you going to do?\u2019 \u00a0I said, \u2018After I finish puking I\u2019m gonna go start a new band. \u00a0What do you think I\u2019m gonna do?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The other members of Montrose were content to keep working with Hagar on a new project until Montrose called and said, \u201cI have a new singer.\u201d \u00a0Hagar understands how it happened: \u00a0Montrose had a recording contract and Hagar did not. \u00a0Hagar went his own way and thirty plus years down the line now says, \u201cHe did me a favour. \u00a0Actually, I am grateful that Montrose did break up because it threw me out on my own and made me do what I\u2019ve done.\u201d \u00a0Even though Montrose would not let Hagar play guitar in the band, he says he learned a lot about playing, writing, and being a rock musician from his time with Montrose. \u00a0Denny Carmassi has a slightly different take, saying \u201cI think Sam would have loved to have stayed with that band. \u00a0He talks about it to me all the time. \u00a0We could have been huge, as big as Aerosmith, but it was Ronnie. \u00a0Look what he\u2019s done. \u00a0I mean, look how many bands he\u2019s had. \u00a0Look at how many opportunities he\u2019s had. \u00a0And each one ends up the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Montrose became one of the few musicians who wouldn\u2019t sing the praises of the first two Montrose albums. \u00a0The more distance he put between his early work and the present, the less he wanted to talk about it. \u00a0Carmassi summarized it best, saying \u201cRonnie said to me: \u2018I\u2019ve been talking about this record for thirty-five years. \u00a0I\u2019m tired of talking about it.\u2019 \u00a0I think he is making a big mistake by looking at it that way. \u00a0It\u2019s something he should be proud of.\u201d \u00a0He also became harder and harder to pin down for interviews, making and then breaking most dates arranged. \u00a0When he finally agreed to talk, he wouldn\u2019t say much about his past, present or future. \u00a0In one of his last interviews, Ronnie put it this way: \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t want to go Jerry Springer, but like it\u2019s the deepest of the deep. \u00a0My story is the real story. \u00a0My name is Ronnie Montrose. \u00a0The band is called Montrose, and all these other guys that were in this band are peripherals to the real true story.\u201d \u00a0Church summed up his part of the story: \u00a0\u201cYou probably are wondering why I suffered all that? \u00a0Because at that time, Ronnie was the best guitar player in San Francisco and that was enough for me. \u00a0It still is.\u201d \u00a0It seems to be another sad example of the spokes on the wheel recognizing the need for the hub but the hub not returning the love.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are many clips available on YouTube that show the former Montrose band members playing nicely together during a handful of reunion shows staged around 2005. \u00a0The original band members also gathered in early 2013 for a tribute show honoring the career of Montrose. \u00a0The joy on Bill Church\u2019s face as they play the Monstrose classics with various guest guitarists like Joe Satriani is obvious. \u00a0The quality of the songs and band is just as obvious forty years after they had their day. \u00a0Like too many highly creative people, it is a shame that Ronnie Montrose himself couldn\u2019t appreciate the career that he had, not to mention the opportunities he didn\u2019t pursue. \u00a0His former band mates are still at a loss to explain why he treated them as he did, but their view of his extraordinary skills as a guitar player remain undiminished.<\/span><\/p>\n TopPiece Video: \u00a0The classic Montrose line up of Sammy Hagar, Bill Church , Denny Carmassi, and Ronnie Montrose performing their first big hit\u00a0Bad Motor Scooter<\/em> in a 1974 television appearance.