Quiet Riot singer dies at 52

[BONES]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/26/obit.dubrow/

 

(CNN) -- Kevin DuBrow, the lead singer of the 1980s heavy

metal band Quiet Riot, has died, CNN has confirmed. He was

52.

 

DuBrow died at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to

TMZ.com. The Clark County coroner's office was examining

the body to determine the cause of death, according to TMZ.

 

"I'm at a loss for words. I've just lost my best friend,"

Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali told CNN. "Out of respect

for both Kevin and his family, I won't comment further.

There's going to be a lot of speculation out there, and I

won't add to that. I love him too much."

 

Quiet Riot hit the top of the charts with its 1983

album, "Metal Health," considered by some sources as the

first heavy metal album to hit No. 1. The album was driven

by the group's cover of Slade's "Cum on Feel the Noize,"

which hit the Top 40.

 

The band's other hits included "Bang Your Head (Metal

Health)" and another Slade cover, "Mama Weer All Crazee

Now."

 

The band formed in the mid-1970s behind DuBrow and

guitarist Randy Rhoads, who later joined Ozzy Osbourne's

band and died in a tour accident. After several years,

during which time the band disbanded, regrouped and built

an audience, everything came together for "Metal Health,"

which put Quiet Riot in the vanguard of the Los Angeles

heavy metal movement.

 

But the band's rushed follow-up, "Condition Critical,"

didn't do as well, and DuBrow started taking shots at other

L.A. bands, such as Motley Crue and Ratt, according to

Allmusic.com. Within a few years, the band had mutinied

(leaving DuBrow at a hotel in Hawaii while other members

returned to California, Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia

observes) and taken on a new lead singer. The bad blood

prompted a lawsuit from DuBrow.

 

By the 1990s tempers had calmed and the band got together

again, putting out a live album in 1999 and a new studio

set, "Guilty Pleasures," in 2001. The group's most recent

album, "Rehab," came out last year.