MUSICANS REMEMBER DICK PETERSON Hi! Hi! Was a great fan of Blue Cheer. Dick Peterson will be missed. It was their heavy sound that i loved. No one sounded like that when they came out, except for Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath. I met Blue Cheer in Germany when we were in Nuremburg. They had just finished a show in town and came all the way to our show and were able to see, I think it was the last 4 songs of set. They came back stage and told us they loved what they heard. We partied, had a good time. And we played with them in Berlin the next on our last show that tour. Their drummer gave me a compliment. I had said that my timing was off and he said, no man, your timing was right on. Needless to say that gave me an ego boost. I would like to do one or two Blue Cheer songs in Dirty Red. Take Care Armando Acosta Ex Saint Vitus, Dirty Rig http://www.myspace.com/armando.acosta MAN... what can be said that hasn’t been felt -- they are the heavy…with the tone to cause a revolution. They set the fire for us all to burn by and dick was one hell of a performer and rocked it til the end. The influence on sourvein is huge. Much respect to the legend, rip brother, blue cheer rules.......t-roy/sourvein Sourvein http://www.myspace.com/84118857 For Dick Peterson of Blue Cheer R.I.P. Sept. 12th, 1946 – Oct. 12th 2009 By Theron Moore I make no bones about it, the band Blue Cheer definitely changed my life in terms of how I listened to, and viewed music, not to mention art in general. I discovered them when I was sixteen, twenty five years ago, 1984, and stuck with them ever since. They were the epitome of what LOUD and HEAVY music should be, what psychedelic rock should sound like, what rock N rollers should look like, and how rock N roll pirates, like these guys back in the day, issued the battle cry of “Sex, drugs and Rock N Roll.” They set the bar high, they were standard bearers of heavy rock, the creators of a genre, the godfathers of metal often imitated, often duplicated, often ripped off, and true underdogs. Zepplin and Sabbath are commonly accredited for creating hard rock / metal; Blue Cheer go mostly ignored. They make the critics list but never the top ten or more importantly, the number one spot. But that’s ok. The true soldiers of rock know the truth, as does Cheer and their surviving members. The driving force behind the band has been Dick Peterson, Blue Cheer's founder, front man, bassist, singer, and songwriter. He was and still is a metal god, a rock icon, a fan’s fan, and a true gentleman who acknowledged the fans not as fans, but as family. They were and still are his wolf pack and he is still our Alpha leader, gone but not forgotten. I had the honor of e-mailing him back and forth over the course of several years while he was still living in Germany back in the late 90's. He wasn’t big on e- mailing but he always took the time to send me a few words, a few lines every now and then. That was cool man, ‘cause he was and still is one of my heroes / idols. And to be able to talk to him, even in a limited capacity? Forget about it. just blows your mind. Eventually he moved the band back to the states a few years ago and decided it was time to record and tour. I was fortunate enough to have done an interview with him prior to the recording of his last record. Dick was never big on doing press and the like. He declined many offers to do so. In 2008 My wife and I caught their gig here in Albuquerque NM. It was truly LOUDER THAN GOD, it was surreal, it was the collision of my own space-time continuum collapsing in and upon itself. Dick and I talked before and after the show, hung out, he told us “inside” rock stories, just the most gracious down to earth guy you’d ever meet. My wife became an instant fan after that show. She loved him. Me? Hell, I actually lost the hearing in my left ear for a week and it took six months for it to fully return, ringing and all. That was fuckin’ rad beyond belief! We got autographs, the autographed set list for the show, photographs, tons of swag, it was my once in a lifetime experience come true. I believe it was last spring / summer when I heard that Dick was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. It didn't phase me as I saw nothing being able to harm something as big and powerful as Dick Peterson, so, I never worried about it. Eventually he was diagnosed with liver cancer and then things took a real turn for the worse from there. He died October 12th, 2009. That was it. No warnings, no fanfare, no parades,no VH1 behind the music's...just…gone, quick like that. Brutally quick. As I write this, I still can't believe he's gone. I'm still reeling from his untimely death. I find myself looking over my Blue Cheer memorabila thinking about him. The final product Blue Cheer released was a live DVD culled from their last tour, shot over in Europe. Talks had been underway for the band to tour in support of that as soon as Dick was released from the hospital, back to unleashing the beast back upon the states and then the rest of the world, stomping Godzilla steps, turning air into cottage cheese, blowing eardrums, everywhere they chose to tour. And here we are. This is for you Dick. Gone but not forgotten. RIP my friend. Hope you’re in heaven smokin’ a big fat one reading my poem below. LOUDER THAN GOD For Dick Peterson of Blue Cheer R.I.P. 1946-2009 Good Friend By Theron Moore YOU were Louder Than God and turning air into cottage cheese while I was shouting at the devil and screaming for vengeance YOU were the living embodiment of all that was hard rock and a true metal god whose altar I worshipped at -- Blue Cheer was and STILL is Godzilla incarnate YOU were outlaw, you were biker you were truly dangerous, living life out loud, just living for the moment -- who dares wins and YOU did YOUR music revolutionized rock N roll blazing trails for Sabbath and Zepplin creating the monster known as heavy metal the world killer, soul eater of civilized music YOU might be gone but never forgotten not by the true soldiers of rock mayhem not by me, whose life you changed, so for you Dick especially, this one goes out to you FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK I SALUTE YOU Blue Cheer Official Press Release On Dick Peterson’s Death 2009-10-14 01:20:59 Blue Cheer has issued the following official press release on the death of Blue Cheer founder, bassist and vocalist Dickie Peterson. PRESS RELEASE Los Angeles, CA – Friends, fans and heavy metal rock and rollers around the world are mourning the death of Blue Cheer bassist and lead singer Richard Allan “Dickie” Peterson (b. September 12, 1946), after a long fight against cancer. Peterson, age 63, died in Erkelenz, Germany, where he lived, on the morning of October 12, 2009. He is survived by wife Ilka Peterson, ex-wife Marilyn (Peterson) Stephens with whom he had a daughter, Corrina Peterson- Kaltenrieder, and a grandson. He was a founding member and leader of the San Francisco band Blue Cheer; a band known to heavy metal fans for being louder and heavier than any band before them and for laying the blueprint for much of what would come after. The band debuted with a ground shaking cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” on their 1968 album Vincebus Eruptum. In the early days, the Cheer regularly played shows with their San Francisco peers including such era luminaries as The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Big Brother & the Holding company and Cream. The band’s last US tour (members Peterson, founding drummer Paul Whaley, and guitarist Andrew “Duck” MacDonald) was in support of their 2007 release What Doesn’t Kill You… and had the band playing shows with the fourth generation of bands to follow in their path. “He loved the younger musicians,” said MacDonald of his bandmate, “he thought of all of them as his children.” Zach Gabbard of the band Buffalo Killers, one of Dickie’s favorite new generation rock bands, said “You never know what it is going to be like to play with your heroes, but we walked into the club and Dickie stopped and said, ‘Buffalo Killers, cool name.’ We played and hung out with Dickie and the rest of the band all night. It was a gift. Dickie was worthy of his hero status and will be missed by many.” Plans were underway for the band to tour in support of the 2009 Rainman Records DVD release of Blue Cheer Rocks Europe when Dickie’s cancer was found. Tour plans were put on hold, but the first full length concert DVD in the band’s more than forty year history was released without delay. The DVD includes not only the concert footage with 5.1 audio, but also included a Peterson voiceover commentary and a complete interview with the late leader of the band. Dickie and Blue Cheer cherished their fans, the 1%ers as they were called, and considered them the fourth member of their band. “Without you, what we do is completely pointless” Peterson said to an audience in 2006, continuing “you’ve got to take care of each other, you’re all you’ve got.” MacDonald says that Dickie believed in the best of people “the people loved him and he loved them right back. It was the best relationship he had in his life.” |
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