Favorite Bands with Colorado Ties #1 - Tommy Bolin

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Merry New Year! It's a whopping 1° here in the Denver suburb of Littleton, where I happen to be at the moment, but it's all part of the joy of living in Colorado! I've been counting down my favorite bands with Colorado ties, and today we hit #1: Tommy Bolin. Guitarist extraordinaire Tommy Bolin was born in Sioux City, Iowa, but moved to Boulder, Colorado as a teenager. There, he played in a band called Zephyr, with whom he released two albums and opened for heavyweights such as Led Zeppelin. He was then recruited into the James Gang (Bolin played on their Bang and Miami albums,) during which he also appeared on drummer Billy Cobham's classic jazz fusion album, Spectrum. David Coverdale, at that time the vocalist for Deep Purple, had been listening to Spectrum, and invited Bolin to audition to replace Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple. After a four hour jam session, Tommy Bolin was Deep Purple's new lead guitarist. Bolin had already been recording his first solo album, Teaser (and it was none other than The Beach Boys who encouraged him to perform his own vocals on the record,) but that album was not released until a month after Deep Purple's Come Taste the Band was out, and Bolin was not able to tour in support of his own record. Bolin's second album, Private Eyes, was released in September, 1976. In December of that year, while touring with Peter Frampton and Jeff Beck, Tommy Bolin died of an overdose of heroin, cocaine, alcohol, and barbiturates. He was just 25 years old. This guy is one of my all-time favorite guitarists. The dude was phenomenally talented. I remember reading long ago that it was Bolin's work on the Spectrum album that influenced Jeff Beck on his own jazz-based rock sound (which is classic stuff!) Who knows what could have been? R.I.P. Tommy. (Info verified by Wikipedia)