Quiet Riot frontman Kevin DuBrow dead

Quiet Riot frontman and founding member Kevin DuBrow (pictured with the red top) was found dead on Sunday (November 25th) at the age of 52. DuBrow's body was discovered in his Las Vegas home by friends, and at press time a cause of death had yet to be determined. Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali issued a statement saying, "I can't even find words to say. Please respect my privacy as I mourn the passing and honor the memory of my dearest friend Kevin DuBrow."

Vegas Eye writer Michael Politz, who called DuBrow "one of my closest friends," said that DuBrow recently celebrated his 52nd birthday in New Orleans, where he "ate great food and even caught the Cult at the House of Blues."

DuBrow was born on October 29th,1955 and grew up in Los Angeles. He started Quiet Riot in the mid-'70s with guitarist Randy Rhoads, who went on to fame as the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne before dying in a plane crash. DuBrow assembled a new version of Quiet Riot after Rhoads' death in 1982 and the band struck gold with its third album, Metal Health.

The disc, released in 1983, became the first heavy metal album to hit Number One on the Billboard album chart, with sales driven by the massive success of the single "Cum On Feel The Noize."

DuBrow told us in 2001 how the band came to record the track, a cover of a British hit by the U.K. glam band Slade: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "The producer wanted us to do a cover tune. You know, he didn't have any faith in our songwriting. He suggested we do 'Cum On Feel The Noize,' and I wanted to do the Fontella Bass R&B song 'Rescue Me,' so we didn't really work up either of them. I think we played both of them one time. We'd never been able to learn 'Cum On Feel The Noize' 'cause we didn't have...I don't even own any Slade records. I still don't. I remember we rehearsed it one time. We didn't get it right 'cause we didn't know the chords. I found a live tape of them Slade doing it from Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, and that's what we learned it off of."

Quiet Riot never achieved the same success again, and DuBrow became one of the most despised figures in metal during the '80s because of his antics and putdowns of other bands. Yet aside from a short period in the late '80s and early '90s, he led Quiet Riot through numerous breakups, reunions and lineup changes. The band's most recent release, Rehab, came out in 2006.

The wild and the young
They all have their dreams
The wild and the young
They've got to be free
The sun never sets
For souls on the run

Kevin DuBrow 1955-2007, The Wild And The Young
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