Nov 25 2008
Remembering Quiet Riot Singer Kevin DuBrow
It was one year ago today that the body of Quiet Riot singer Kevin DuBrow was found dead in his Las Vegas home.
For those who weren’t around back in 1983, it was Quiet Riot’s Metal Health album that brought heavy metal into the American mainstream. Quiet Riot’s cover version of the Slade song “Cum On Feel The Noize” went to number five on the single’s chart, while Metal Health went to number one on the album chart. The song “Metal Health”, in my opinion far better than “Cum On Feel The Noize”, charted at number 31.
From 83-84 Quiet Riot was everywhere, with the songs on the radio and their videos in heavy rotation on MTV. The follow up album, Condition Critical, went Platinum in the US, but was considered a failure by comparison to the runaway success of Metal Health.
By the time of 1986’s QRIII, Quiet Riot had fallen out of the public limelight. Kevin DuBrow was fired from the band at the end of a 1987 tour when all the other band members caught an earlier flight and left him stranded in Hawaii.
DuBrow later rejoined the band and led Quiet Riot through the 90s and right up until his death, though the band never again reached the lofty success of 1983.
Here is a video of Kevin DuBrow fleading Quiet Riot through “Metal Health” during the height of their popularity at the 1983 US Festival in San Bernadino.
R.I.P. Kevin DuBrow (October 1955 - November 2007)
