Rick Derringer, the flamboyant virtuoso guitarist and producer who played alongside Johnny Winter and his brother Edgar, has died aged 77.
The Independent reports that Derringer passed away in the company of his wife, Jenda, and friend and caretaker, Tony Wilson, on 26 May. Wilson shared the news in a Facebook post.
“Derringer's legacy extends beyond his music, entertaining fans with his signature energy and talent,” wrote Wilson. “His passing leaves a void in the music world, and he will be deeply missed by fans, colleagues, and loved ones.”
Among the first to pay tribute on social media was drummer Carmine Appice, who was a long-time friend and collaborator of Derringer’s.
“RIP, my good friend Rick Derringer,” wrote Appice. “I will miss our talks. We made great music together. Jender, I am so sorry. But he is with his lord and saviour. He will be missed.”
Born in Ohio. Derringer – né Zehringer – got started early and was prolific, both as a guitar player and a producer. You could call him a child prodigy. You could also call him a character. Speaking to Guitar Player in 2024, Derringer said the instrument came easy to him. He would have been more modest about it but why lie?
“Right away, I was playing chord sequences like a pro,” he said. “I was totally hooked, and it all came very easily to me. I know some people hate to hear that, but I was just blessed by the good Lord with the ability to play anything I heard.”
That was Derringer speaking about his nine-year-old self, who had just availed himself of a single-pickup Harmony-style electric guitar and Mickey Baker’s Complete Course In Jazz Guitar. But he would soon have the records to prove it.
His first band, the McCoys, were formed in 1962 and wasted little time in introducing themselves, scoring a number one hit with their cover of the Vibrations’ Hang On Sloopy.
The track would remain an Ohio classic, an anthem of the Ohio State Buckeyes, and would foreshadow Derringer’s crossover appeal with sports fans. In 1985, he produced the WWF’s The Wrestling Album and co-wrote Hulk Hogan’s theme, Real American.
But that is eliding a lot of music along the way. Having established themselves in the garage-rock scene, tracking four studio albums, the McCoys would be subsumed by Johnny Winter. They would be a formidable backing band.
Derringer wrote more songs than Winter for their first album together, Johnny Winter And. Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo was the pick of the bunch, and Derringer would rerecord it on his 1973 solo debut, All American Boy. As with Hang On Sloopy, Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo would become part of the very fabric of classic rock and US pop-culture. Richard Linklater used it in the Dazed And Confused soundtrack.
“We had a great time playing, Johnny and me. It was a kind of competition,” Derringer told Guitar Player. “Eventually, he got tired of trying to compete, so he disbanded that group, and that's when I started playing with Edgar Winter’s White Trash.”
It might have been a competition but Winter taught Derringer the finer points of slide guitar.
Derringer would record 14 solo albums but would also be busy making a name for himself as a hired gun, guesting on Steely Dan’s Show Biz Kids from 1973’s Countdown To Ecstasy, he proved he learned well from Winter.
“They said that they wanted slide guitar, and they wanted similar things to what I played with Johnny,” said Derringer. “They didn’t determine the parts, though. I just created the parts.”
His solo on Chain Lightning from Steely Dan’s 1975 album, Katy Lied, was pure Derringer. Derringer’s reputation as one of America’s great hot-shot guitar players was also good for BC Rich. He helped popularise the Mockingbird throughout the ‘70s.
He had a knack for a musical set piece, playing the solo on Exciter, from KISS’s Lick It Up, supplying lead guitar for Air Supply power ballad Making Love Out of Nothing At All. Not many artists could say they have worked with Cyndi Lauper, Alice Cooper, Weird “Al” Yankovic, Joe Bonamassa, and Ringo Starr – and played on Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse Of The Heart.
Derringer could.
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