Marty Weinstein has posted on FB Leslie has passed. Other than the ABB I have seen Leslie West perform live more than any other artist. Just loved his tone. The heavens will be rocking hard and heavy tonight. RIP Big Man.
Sad news indeed about Leslie West. He was 75 and apparently had a heart attack recently and was on a ventilator. I saw them several times in the 70's and Leslie had a Les Paul Junior and man he had a great tone. Nothing Junior about his sound. I think he later went with Dean guitars.
Mountain broke up and got back together more times than the Allman Brothers and even the Doobie Brothers.
Lots of guys played with them. But Lesile was in the new lineup that was going out this year.
Remember Felix Pappalardo I think was his name or something similar on the sir name. He was a real good heavy rock bassist. And I think his wife shot and killed him at age 41 in their Manhattan Apartment with a pistol HE GAVE HER AS A GIFT just a few weeks earlier. It was in the early 80's.
I'll be 75 next year. Hope I make it.
RIP Leslie West. A man that was a great guitarist and knew how to get a better tone out of a Les Paul Junior than many could with a big Les Paul which probably is the guitar with the best stock tone I've heard.
Sad, sad day.
I have a Leslie West story that I've told too many times. I'll tell it again today.
Kind of a Cinderella story on my part. In high school - I had to work the super late shift at the grocery store. All the cool kids had tickets to see Mountain, with Buckingham Nicks as the opener. I had to work until way past midnight.
One of the cool kids was a girl I knew who was something of a groupie. She knew someone who knew somebody who delivered the newspaper to the guy who washed the car of the local promoter. Something like this. She approached me earlier in the day and gave me a sticker that she said was a pass to get into the after-the show party.
I'm gonna spare a whole lotta details here and FFWD to meeting Leslie West.
I show up at this place (again - sparing details) and they actually let me in! The party was so much more than I have ever seen depicted in any movie or book. Naked super-model quality girls, PILES of ... substances. So much wilder and crazier than fiction!
Here I was, all of 17 years old wandering around with a stunned Brook Trout expression. At one point, I pi$$ed off a female singer who would one day become famous ( 😉 ) - quite innocently and quite by accident.
I stumble around a corner and bump right into a guy who was no taller than I was, but was a lot on the heavy side. He actually appeared bored with all of this. I was afraid I'd made him mad, too. I recognized him and again, just stood there with my mouth hanging wide open. He stuck his hand out and said, "Hiya doin', kid?"
Out of all the debauchery and craziness that was happening at that place - that was my favorite and most memorable moment.
I'd heard that Leslie West could be a real grouch and a hard a$$, but he was actually nice to me.
I am heart broken to hear of his passing.
Peace.
R
R.I.P. Leslie, thanks for the great music. I saw Leslie at the Beacon with the ABB and they played a rocking version of Crossroads.
My neighbor and childhood friend worked with Leslie in the 80’s and would always play me his phone messages of his raspy voice. My friend never had a bad thing to say about Mr Weinstein.
Great story Rusty! Sorry I missed the party.........
I always loved Mountain and I'm old enough to remember them. I still think that Nantucket Sleighride is one of the greatest rock records ever recorded. Mountain Climbing is excellent as well. What a contrast between Leslie's wicked string bending and vocal growl and Felix Pappalardi's soft lullabies and lovely voice. Yes, his wife shot him..........and she got away with it. You could find the details on Wikipedia I'm sure, it's been many years since I looked into it.
I never did see Mountain only because the show I wanted to go to at Long Beach Arena landed the same evening as my cousin's wedding/reception and I was Best Man. He was only 19 or 20 when he tied the knot. I did the right thing and showed up for the wedding and missed Mountain. Never regretted that decision and they are still married 45 years later! I did see West, Bruce and Laing. That band for me just never really worked and it wasn't all that great of a show. Their record Why Dontcha has it's moments though.
Pappalardi added a LOT to the Mountain sound. He was a heavy dude! Pappalardi produced Cream's all-time classic Disraeli Gears with Tom Dowd as recording engineer. Pappalardi also co-wrote two tunes on Disraeli Gears, Strange Brew and World Of Pain. He and Leslie were a formidable team.
Mississippi Queen w/ Peter Frampton, 2013:
The Vagrants - featuring a very young Leslie West in a god awful movie called "Disc-O-Tek Holiday". You'll recognize him:
The video here is audio only but worth checking out especially his 9 minute solo @ Fillmore East 1970.
Great ones Rusty - both the story & that clip - thanks for those, that clip, omg, cool find - dig that frampton one too rob😎
yes a sad at for mountain fans - Leslie’s music has great staying power - Got Blooz was mentioned - Blues To Die For, the one b4 that (I believe) is also xclnt
what better cover of Roll Over Beethoven is there than Mountain’s?
Could go on & on about the big man w/the chops, tone & volume to match
RIP Leslie
very sad about this , RIP
RIP Big Guy
Sad news indeed. I always enjoyed his acoustic guitar skills as well. I have been wanting to post a thread about that prior topic and Leslie and a few others are my reasons to do so.
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
Leslie West & Van Halen Jam - Mississippi Queen
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
I know EVH was a big Leslie West fan...He spoke of him occasionally over the years in various interviews and what not. Back in the early 2000’s when EVH was a mess physically and mentally Leslie invited him to jam at a show somewhere in the LA area and I think there’s a YouTube clip of it somewhere floating around the internet....RIP Leslie..
