Guitarist Ronnie Montrose began his career as a backing musician, playing with Van Morrison, Boz Scaggs, and Edgar Winter. He finally formed his own band in 1973. Named after the guitarist, Montrose also featured vocalist Sammy Hagar, bassist Bill Church, and drummer Denny Carmassi; they released their debut album in 1974, and The Church was replaced by Alan Fitzgerald shortly after its release. Released the following year, Paper Money confirmed the band's status as one of the more popular rock acts of their era. However, Haggard was fired after completing the Paper Money tour. Bob James replaced him and keyboardist Jim Alcivar joined the band, yet Montrose's next two albums -- 1975's Warner Brothers Presents Montrose and 1976's Jump on It! -- were commercial failures. Ronnie Montrose broke up the band after the release of Jump on It! and began his own solo career with the all-instrumental Open Fire (1978). Montrose then formed another hard rock group, Gamma, which recorded three albums between 1979 and 1982. After they broke up in 1982, Montrose picked his solo career once again. He released a rather low-key album, Vacilando Territory Blues, in 1983, following it four years later in 1987 with the hard-rocking and impressive Say It Like You Mean It (attributing it to Gamma). The Sound Of Speed appeared in 1988, with "The Diva Station", a semi-instrumental mesh of soul, pop, metal, and jazz, arriving in 1990. Montrose began putting more of his time into production work, but continued to release solo albums, including Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) (1991), Here On Earth - Music From The Motion Picture (1994), Thug Hitz Vol. 1 (1996), "Roll Over and Play Live" (1999), and Bearings (1999), before reuniting Gamma for a fourth Gamma album in 2000. Montrose continued his production and session work, and would tour regularly over the last dozen years of his life before finally losing his long battle with prostate cancer and passing on March 3, 2012. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Steve Leggett, Rovi