Guitarist Ronnie Montrose died on Saturday, March 3 after a battle with cancer. The 1973 self-titled debut album from his band Montrose, which featured a then-unknown vocalist by the name of Sammy Hagar, is a stone-cold classic that any fan of hard rock should have in their collection.
But both before that, as an in-demand guitarist with artists such as Edgar Winter and Van Morrison, and afterwards (operating variously under his full name, with a reconstituted Montrose or with the band Gamma), Montrose earned a reputation as a talented artist determined not to tread on the same ground twice.