RIP Rick Derringer, a Rock & Roll Great and a Master Guitarist

Music has a way of taking us back across the decades. Some songs are iconic enough, even after forty or fifty years, that when you hear them, you're transported back in time. One such for me is Rick Derringer's "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo." When I listen to it today, suddenly in my mind I'm a 17-year-old kid in a 1966 Ford, kicking up dust on the gravel roads of Allamakee County, Iowa, with the AM radio blasting.

On Tuesday, we were saddened to hear of Rick Derringer's passing at the age of 77.

The news comes via a Facebook post from the musician’s caretaker, Tony Wilson, who shared on Tuesday (May 27) that Derringer had passed away at 8:09 p.m. on Monday. His wife, Jenda Derringer, was at his side, as was Wilson.
"Derringer’s legacy extends beyond his music, entertaining fans with his signature energy and talent,” the announcement reads. “His passing leaves a void in the music world, and he will be deeply missed by fans, colleagues, and loved ones.”
The post did not include a cause of death, but according to a report from Variety, Derringer had been ill in recent months.

Rick's career started in the late '60s with his first band, "The McCoys," best known for their hit "Hang on Sloopy." His breakout hit came in 1973 with "Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo," but Rick went on to work with an impressive variety of performers, ranging from Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Cyndi Lauper, the Edgar Winter Group (he played guitar on their amazing instrumental piece "Frankenstein") Cyndi Lauper and Weird Al Yankovic.

Rick was born Richard Dean Zehringer in 1947, in Celina, Ohio. He was reportedly inspired by his music-loving parents' huge record collection but also by his uncle, a local guitarist named Jim Thornburg. The young Rick was fond of sitting in the kitchen listening to his uncle play, and determined that he would become a guitar player himself.

Rick started "The McCoys" while still a teenager. "Hang on Sloopy" zoomed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, at a time when it was competing with the Beatles' "Yesterday," which was then at #3.

That's a pretty impressive showing for a bunch of kids from Ohio releasing their first song.

Like too few musicians today, Rick was also an unabashed American patriot and made no bones about it.

But most of all, Rick was a talented performer, a great guitarist, versatile, devoted to his craft.

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Within the last year, Rick released two albums, one a career retrospective, as noted in his official biography:

2024 marks the release of two albums featuring new material mixed with original hits since the 60’s until now. “Rock the Yacht” is geared toward a yacht rock genre with couples music, while “My Double Gold Life” spans five decades of music with 50 songs equal to five albums.

It's odd, sometimes, to reflect that the great rockers of our youth are getting old. Even we Boomers still tend to think of rock & roll as a young person's genre, but Rick's passing reminds us that we're not kids anymore; we're not even the Mamas and the Papas. We're the grandmas and grandpas now. But we still know great music when we hear it, and Rick Derringer sure gave us plenty of that.

Rock on, Rick. We miss you already. You were a great American, but we'll always remember you as a great rocker.

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