R.I.P. Joey Alves (Y&T)

Read More Y&T Y&T Live at the Mystic is a new double live CD recorded at the legendary Mystic Theatre in Petaluma, California. This 2-CD set includes 22 songs recorded over 2 nights in November of 2011. ..…

Singer, songwriter and lead guitarist for Y&T (originally named Yesterday & Today), Dave Meniketti, broke the news just hours ago that, their original rhythm guitarist, Joey Alves, passed away this morning.

Meniketti gave additional details:

Y&T's original rhythm guitarist, Joey Alves, passed away this morning at 7:10 this morning at the age of 63. He suffered from ulcerative colitis and other complications that led to his passing. Joey was one of the finest rock rhythm guitarists, and I’ll always remember playing next to him chunking out those monster chords with his classic red double cutaway ‘59 Les Paul Jr. As Ronnie Montrose once said about Joey, “There are rhythm players, then there's Joey. A class of his own.....”

He was a fun guy who always played with attitude and conviction, and was responsible for writing some memorable riffs for Y&T over the years. His friendship and presence will be missed. This is a great loss for all the Y&T family and faithful. He now joins Phil and Leonard in rock and roll heaven.

Below are more deaths for the month of March - for the full death list: Musicians who died in 2017.

March (17)

[12 Mar 2017] Joey Alves (American rhythm guitarist for Y&T), 62, ulcerative colitis

[11 Mar 2017] Ángel Parra (Chilean singer and songwriter), 73, cancer

[10 Mar 2017] Joni Sledge (American singer for Sister Sledge), 60

[09 Mar 2017] Barbara Helsingius (Finnish singer and Olympic fencer), 79

[09 Mar 2017] Tony Lorenzo (American guitarist for Sons of Azrael), 30

[08 Mar 2017] Dave Valentin (American jazz flautist), 64, Parkinson's disease

[07 Mar 2017] Kamran Aziz (Turkish Cypriot pianist and pharmacist), 85, pulmonary complications

[07 Mar 2017] Kalika Prasad Bhattacharya (Indian folk singer), 47, traffic collision

[06 Mar 2017] Lars Diedricson (Swedish songwriter, winner of Eurovision), 55

[05 Mar 2017] Kurt Moll (German opera singer), 78

[04 Mar 2017] Edi Fitzroy (Jamaican reggae singer), 62

[03 Mar 2017] Misha Mengelberg (Dutch jazz pianist and composer), 81

[03 Mar 2017] Valerie Carter (American singer-songwriter of Howdy Moon), 64

[03 Mar 2017] Tommy Page (American singer-songwriter), 46, suicide

[02 Mar 2017] Fred Fiske (American radio broadcaster for WAMU), 96

[01 Mar 2017] Hiroshi Kamayatsu (Japanese musician for The Spiders), 78, pancreatic cancer

[01 Mar 2017] Wally Pikal (American Hall of Fame musician), 90

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