Y&T bassist Phil Kennemore Dead

[Diamondjimi]

Y&T rocker Phil Kennemore has died at the age of 57 after losing his battle with lung cancer.

The bassist passed away in the early hours of Friday morning at Stanford Hospital in California.

The sad news was confirmed by Kennemore's Y&T bandmate Dave Meniketti, who paid tribute to his longtime pal in a post on the group's website.

He writes, "It is with profound sadness and disbelief that I tell you that my best buddy for 37 years passed away this morning... Bravely and steadfastly battling the horrible spectacle of lung cancer, at the end he was surrounded by his family members, and the Y&T family up until his final breath...

"He had an amazingly strong life force that has influenced everyone who ever had the opportunity to be called a friend of his. I am forever grateful for our lifelong friendship... I will miss his sense of humour, his amazing wit, but most of all I will always miss not seeing him to my left on the stages I will play from this moment forward."

Kennemore rose to fame with the band, originally known as Yesterday and Today, in the 1970s, enjoying numerous hits and selling more than four million records worldwide before the group parted ways in 1991.

Kennemore and Meniketti reformed the band in 1995 and played sporadically before an official reunion in 2001. The band released its 12th studio album, Facemelter, in May 2010. The record marked their first studio album in 13 years.

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[PETE'S BROTHER]

shitty

[Diamondjimi]

[Jagermeister]

This really sucks.

[sonrisa salvaje]

This sucks. They just had a big new years eve party to raise money to help him with his medical bills. It was a who's who of stars there mostly from the L.A. scene. There was never any impression given that he was in that bad a condition.

[Seshmeister]

From memory I think the figure is that 1 in 10 smokers get lung cancer and of them 19 out of 20 are dead in 5 years.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

never knew they came up with hooters' outfits

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[Terry]

From memory I think the figure is that 1 in 10 smokers get lung cancer and of them 19 out of 20 are dead in 5 years.

In addition, all non-smokers will eventually die also.

[Seshmeister]

Well of course. I fully support people who smoke, I did it for 20 years myself.

[Seshmeister]

I'm starting to wonder if we have reached some sort of demographic tipping point where we are going to have someone from a rock band dying every week from now on. How many bands did we know of from say 1975 onwards, 500? Average 4 members so we have 2000 people in their 50s/60s who smoked and drank like fuck.

A life insurance guy could tell us the chances of one checking out in any given week.

[CROWBAR]

From memory I think the figure is that 1 in 10 smokers get lung cancer and of them 19 out of 20 are dead in 5 years.

Makes ya wonder just how the fuck Ed does it. Maybe he really does have the cure for cancer?

RIP Y & T dude

[sadaist]

Makes me very thankful I saw them about 4 years ago. It was a very small show. Maybe 150 people. But motherfuck if they didn't blow the roof off the place. So much energy & sounded so fucking great. Just wow. Sad to see this guy go. My favorite album was Contagious. As was the song Contagious. My Y&T fan friends always gave me shit. They were hardcore fans & were in to shit like Mean Streak & Black Tiger. Good tunes, just for me couldn't compare to Contagious.

Definitely a working class rock band.

RIP Phil. Thoughts & peace to your family & friends.

[sonrisa salvaje]

You were very lucky to see them. Needless to say they didn't get down South much. I never managed to catch them in the mid to late 80's when they were opening for a bigger act on a major tour. It seems like they actually opened up a bit for Accept on their Balls To The Wall tour, which was the thing i loved about the 80's tours. You would have some stylistic clashes in music but when you think about it, there were some cool shows like that (Dokken opening for Priest, Fastway opening for Dio, etc). The worst one i ever saw was White Lion opening for AC/DC on the Blow Up Your Video tour. Nevertheless, i have been a long time fan of them. I loved all of their stuff from Meanstreak to Down For the Count to Contagious.

[Kristy]

I never even heard of this band.

[kwame k]

If memory serves me............Y & T and Van Halen played a few shows together in the early days. Bass Player sang background vocals on Summertime Girls.........

I thought Y & T opened for VH in the 80's but can't find any info on it.

[CROWBAR]

If memory serves me............Y & T and Van Halen played a few shows together in the early days. Bass Player sang background vocals on Summertime Girls.........

I thought Y & T opened for VH in the 80's but can't find any info on it.

The only dates I could find VH playing with Y & T were at the Starwood back in the club days circa 1977.

All their tours were archived here.

[kwame k]

[CROWBAR]

[sonrisa salvaje]

I never even heard of this band.

Unless you are in your late thirties or early forties you probably wouldn't have. I remember when Summertime Girls was a big hit on MTV around....1985? They had the big robot running around the beach which was pretty cheesy. Contagious came out in 1987 and the title track video had some minor success on MTV. Even if you were into the hard rock scene back in the day when they were at their peak, you had to look to find them.

[binnie]

I never even heard of this band.

Worth an exploratory listen, as they were/are much better than your average hard rock band. Stick to the early albums.

[Green Manalishi]

I saw Y & T play the Kiel Opera House here in St. Louis in 1987 . Ace Frehley and Faster Pussycat opened the show . I had 5th. row .

At that moment , they ( Y & T ) were at the pinnacle of their success . Truth be known , I went to this show mostly because of Ace Frehley .

Newcomers Guns -N- Roses were the originaly scheduled opening band but , without any announcement , G-N-R were a no-show and Faster Pussycat filled in .

At some point in their show , singer Taime Downe announced that G-N-R were friends of theres and were currently touring in Europe instead .

Y & T paraded some bikini - clad hot local gals around the stage during " Summertime Girls " . You could tell who was supporting who in the crowd

as the younger MTV friendly teeny-boppers cheered for Y & T and the older and more serious rock minded crowd cheered for Ace Frehley

who just killed . The classic KISS tunes brought down the house . Faster Pussycat were fairly forgettable .

[GreenBayLA]

LOL Summertime Girls filmed at Venice Beach, CA. Always thought it was catchy song but twee.
RIP Phil Kennemore Yesterday & Today.