RIP Kevin Dubrow
As is widely known, now, Quiet Riot frontman Kevin Dubrow passed away last week at 52. As I write this no cause of death has been announced. I will not assume, as some have, that it “must be drugs” because he was an old ’80s rocker. Let’s wait and see what the official word is eventually. Mr. Dubrow simply died too young at only 52. The reasons are unimportant right now.
Quiet Riot opened the first real concert I ever saw as a high school senior in 1983. My friends and I elected not to attend school that day due to it being the unofficial “Senior Skip Day” and we made our way to, I think, Des Moines, Iowa to see the Scorpions on their “Blackout” tour. We’d never heard of Quiet Riot. They blew us away. Not long after, “Cum On Feel the Noize” blew up on MTV and their album “Metal Health” knocked Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album out of the #1 spot. The Age of ’80s Metal had begun, thanks to Quiet Riot. I later that summer saw Quiet Riot again opening for Loverboy of all bands, with Joan Jett sandwiched in between. Then, in the Fall of 1983, as a college freshman, I traveled with some guys to Davenport, Iowa’s Col Ballroom to see QR finally headline a show with AXE opening. It was a small venue and we got to be right up front, one of the few perks of being a gimp. It was fantastic! I still remember being just feet away from Kevin, Carlos, Rudy and Frankie. I was a hooked Metal Head at that point.
QR didn’t last as long as some bands as their next albums gradually sold less and less and Dubrow even got himself fired from the band in the late ’80s. By 1993, Kevin and Frankie Banali had reconciled and they occasionally recorded as Quiet Riot and toured. I caught them on one of those package tours in 2001, I think, with Poison the headliner. It was QR’s “Metal Health” lineup and it rocked! Just like old times. Connie and I caught them in Peoria on another package in 2005 with Firehouse, Ratt and Cinderella. Only Kevin and Frankie remained in the band but it was a good show. I guess they even stayed in the same hotel as we did in Peoria and ate in the Bennigan’s just before we did.
They were still making music and playing shows even recently. I downloaded their 2006 CD “Rehab” and it’s pretty good. I’m going to pick up 2001’s “Guilty Pleasures,” too, I think.
At that last show I saw in 2005, QR was at a table signing autographs after their set but I didn’t get in line because I’d just waited in line for Firehouse autographs. I also didn’t want to miss Ratt. I wish I had gotten in line and taken the time to tell Kevin Dubrow how much Quiet Riot meant to me in 1983, how they taught me to bang my head and gave us all a soundtrack for 1983 as we transitioned from high school to college. QR opened the “radio door” for all the others: Ratt, Poison, Cinderella, Warrant, Skid Row, etc. Thanks, Quiet Riot. Rest in peace, Kevin, and my condolences to the Quiet Riot family.