By Steve Newton
Very few albums that I bought as a teen in the seventies had as huge an effect on me as Montrose.
I mean, from the very first riff of the very first track of the very first Montrose album, I was like “Holy shit!”
It was 1973, I was 17 years old, and I wouldn’t get as seriously blown away by the sound of a cranked guitar until five years later when Eddie did his thing on Van Halen.
I only got the chance to interview Ronnie Montrose once, back on September 9, 1994, when he was heading to Vancouver for a double-bill with the Dixie Dregs, whose guitarist, Steve Morse, I’d chatted with two days earlier.
During the course of our conversation I couldn’t help but bring up that mindblowing Montrose LP, only to hear that Ronnie thought those were “kindergarten days” for him as a guitarist.
Have a listen:
To hear the full 1994 interview with Ronnie, become a patron of the Newt on Patreon. Hey, it’s only 5 bucks a month! (U.S., mind you).
In 2002 I did an interview with all four original members and talked about the first album.
sweet