Phil Kennemore, the bassist of veteran hard-rock group Y&T, died early Friday morning (Jan. 7) of lung cancer, the group’s frontman confirmed. Kennemore, 57, passed away at Stanford Hospital in California while surrounded by family members.
Y&T frontman Dave Meniketti, who founded the group with Kennemore, guitarist Joey Alves and drummer Leonard Haze, issued a blog post this morning to confirm the bassist’s death and offer a personal tribute.
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Video: Y&T, “Summertime Girls”
“As a musician, with those huge fingers, his bass playing was always loud, strong, and deep, filling the largest or smallest of stages equally,” Meniketti wrote. “I will miss his sense of humor, 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.”
Y&T, formerly known as Yesterday and Today, formed in Oakland in 1972 and released their self-titled debut album in 1976. The group found new popularity in the 80s with singles “Mean Streak” and “Summertime Girls” (the latter reaching No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985) and toured with artists like AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne and Aerosmith. Y&T released “Facemelter,” its first album in 13 years, last May.