Ronnie Montrose
Ronnie Montrose
Ronald Douglas "Ronnie" Montrosewas an American rock guitarist, who led the bands Montroseand Gammaand also performed and did session work with a variety of musicians, including Van Morrison, Herbie Hancock, Beaver & Krause, Boz Scaggs, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, The Beau Brummels, Dan Hartman, Tony Williams, The Neville Brothers, Marc Bonilla, Sammy Hagar, and Johnny Winter. The first Montrose album was often cited as "America's answer to Led Zeppelin" and Ronnie Montrose was often referred to as one of the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth29 November 1947
CountryUnited States of America
What made me pick up a guitar? It weighed a lot less than a piano.
I was working with Bill Graham management at the time and it was obvious to everyone concerned that albums like Open Fire, while they were good for me creatively, were not going to be commercially successful.
I was following my muse and I was very fortunate in having good people around me and it turned out to be a pretty good recording in my opinion.
Everybody has their iPhone cameras, BlackBerry cameras, and I see those cameras pointed up at me all the time now, which is actually really good because of what it does for me and my band. There is no time for us not to be on our toes because they're on all the time whenever you're playing. I think it's very healthy.
My philosophy is, honestly, never collected anything that I don't play. I know a lot of people that collect guitars, but for me, I want instruments that I play. And if I don't play them, I don't' want to have them sitting in a closet collecting dust.
My first experience with music was my father, he was a stereo buff and he built his own little Hi-Fi center with recorders and everything and I listened to a lot of jazz, which gave me a sensibility for melody.
You know, you don't please everybody.
I don't recall getting a first guitar.
I'm pursuing soundtrack work in the southern California area and down the line I plan to make a moody, intense acoustic album. Not all acoustic, but an acoustic - oriented guitar record that I've already written most of the material for.
I was too broke to buy a guitar so I more borrowed guitars from friends.