Walter Rossi — the Juno-winning Italian-Canadian musician who played guitar with Wilson Pickett, the Buddy Miles Express, Charlee, Influence, Luke & the Apostles and more — has died. A social media page managed by the late artist's friends confirms Rossi passed away Friday (April 29) following a battle with lung cancer. He was 74.
Born Rossignuoli Rossi in Naples, Italy in 1947, the artist began playing guitar in his early teens after making a move to Montreal with his musical family, taking to the playing styles of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, the Ventures and Duane Eddy.
As Rossi would recount in a self-authored bio, "The guitar became the only thing I could think of, after school, on weekends, at the dinner table, anywhere, everywhere and any time. Imagine if you will, eating at a table with someone holding a fork in one hand and a guitar pick in the other, that was supper at the Rossi household!"
In the late '60s, Rossi was performing in Montreal's club scene with an outfit dubbed the Soulmates when he made the acquaintance of Buddy Miles, the American artist and drummer known best as a founding member of Electric Flag and a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys. The fast friendship led Miles to recommend Rossi as a new guitarist for Wilson Pickett's backing band, and he recalls his audition onstage at Toronto's Massey Hall as follows:
The band breezed through an instrumental warm-up of a Pickett standard called 99 ½, and it was obvious that the guitar player lacked the necessary skills. Then the Wicked Pickett, as he liked to call himself, showed up and the band launched into the song for a complete run through. No sooner had they started, that Pickett stopped the rehearsal to chew out the guitar player and call me up onto the stage. After a somewhat chaotic and intimidating introduction, he there and then ordered me to play the opening of the song! I took a deep breath and let her rip. I had barely gotten halfway when he stopped the song, and turning to me simply said: "Welcome, to the Wilson Pickett group. Be in New York next week." Those two sentences changed my very existence.
Rossi spent two years on the road with Pickett's band before returning home to Montreal. Back in Canada, he joined psych rock outfit Influence, releasing a self-titled LP in 1968 and supporting the likes of the Doors, Procol Harum and Blood, Sweat & Tears. Before the decade was out, Rossi would leave Influence to join the Buddy Miles Express and, later, Luke & the Apostles. Upon the latter group's dissolution, he would go on to form Charlee, releasing a self-titled debut with the band in 1972.
The decade also saw Rossi become a sought-after session guitarist, lending six-string skill to recordings from Michel Pagliaro and Nanette Workman. He would also launch his solo career, with a 1976 self-titled LP which was followed by 1978's Six Strings Nine Lives.
The fruitful '70s also netted Rossi a pair of Juno Award nominations for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year (now Breakthrough Artist of the Year). He was beat for the honour at the 1978 awards by David Bradstreet ahead of capturing it himself in 1980, beating out a young Bryan Adams.
"From the shows, to the studios, to the bars after hours – I had friends all around me, and I never knew what it was to spend time all alone," Rossi reflected of his career. "You know, life is so unpredictable. So full of surprises."
Born Rossignuoli Rossi in Naples, Italy in 1947, the artist began playing guitar in his early teens after making a move to Montreal with his musical family, taking to the playing styles of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, the Ventures and Duane Eddy.
As Rossi would recount in a self-authored bio, "The guitar became the only thing I could think of, after school, on weekends, at the dinner table, anywhere, everywhere and any time. Imagine if you will, eating at a table with someone holding a fork in one hand and a guitar pick in the other, that was supper at the Rossi household!"
In the late '60s, Rossi was performing in Montreal's club scene with an outfit dubbed the Soulmates when he made the acquaintance of Buddy Miles, the American artist and drummer known best as a founding member of Electric Flag and a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys. The fast friendship led Miles to recommend Rossi as a new guitarist for Wilson Pickett's backing band, and he recalls his audition onstage at Toronto's Massey Hall as follows:
The band breezed through an instrumental warm-up of a Pickett standard called 99 ½, and it was obvious that the guitar player lacked the necessary skills. Then the Wicked Pickett, as he liked to call himself, showed up and the band launched into the song for a complete run through. No sooner had they started, that Pickett stopped the rehearsal to chew out the guitar player and call me up onto the stage. After a somewhat chaotic and intimidating introduction, he there and then ordered me to play the opening of the song! I took a deep breath and let her rip. I had barely gotten halfway when he stopped the song, and turning to me simply said: "Welcome, to the Wilson Pickett group. Be in New York next week." Those two sentences changed my very existence.
Rossi spent two years on the road with Pickett's band before returning home to Montreal. Back in Canada, he joined psych rock outfit Influence, releasing a self-titled LP in 1968 and supporting the likes of the Doors, Procol Harum and Blood, Sweat & Tears. Before the decade was out, Rossi would leave Influence to join the Buddy Miles Express and, later, Luke & the Apostles. Upon the latter group's dissolution, he would go on to form Charlee, releasing a self-titled debut with the band in 1972.
The decade also saw Rossi become a sought-after session guitarist, lending six-string skill to recordings from Michel Pagliaro and Nanette Workman. He would also launch his solo career, with a 1976 self-titled LP which was followed by 1978's Six Strings Nine Lives.
The fruitful '70s also netted Rossi a pair of Juno Award nominations for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year (now Breakthrough Artist of the Year). He was beat for the honour at the 1978 awards by David Bradstreet ahead of capturing it himself in 1980, beating out a young Bryan Adams.
"From the shows, to the studios, to the bars after hours – I had friends all around me, and I never knew what it was to spend time all alone," Rossi reflected of his career. "You know, life is so unpredictable. So full of surprises."
