First off I need to apologize to everyone for all this personal stuff and memories on the site. That being said:
I'd like to say, Thanks for your military service. We just had the Sec Nav on out film set the other day. We are very focused on our military here. You still in SoCal? Myself I'm still in SoCal.
Funny Larrys brother, Al was almost a dead ringer for Larry...so was his sister lol.
"Tear it up" was a great song! I had a demo cassette we had made, from I'd say 1978 or 79, of "Tear it up" and "Blitlizkieg"... I wish I still had it. And oh yes battle of the bands at Devanshire downs! They were so much fun!
Blazze did a Who cover... I can't recall... Were you in the band when they did the Who's "The Real Me" or was that only when he had John Binkley on bass?
When you were with him did you have Jeff Mason on drums at all or was it always Mark Herreras? Pretty good drummer in his own right, Mark was.
I recall, Larry telling me about this "bad ass bass player" he had found (it was you) He thought that he had finally found the perfect combination for Blazze. You guys were so great. The covers were awesome as well as the originals "Too rolling stoned", "Rock Candy" and Larry playing his version of Red House! I still remember sitting in his room when we were kids, him playing his guitar...at 15 he was sooooo good, so soulful, leads played with so much feeling, remember his little volume control deal with his little finger, on his leads? I have great memories of Larry and his Two tone burst Strat!!! The memories of my dear friend is why I bought my Eric Johnson signature, 57 replica Strat. Unfortunately it's with a heavy heart, that I must tell you...Larry past away a couple years ago...of a heartattack. I'm sad that I never got to let him know that I finally started playing. I hadn't seen him for quite a while at that point...life, you know.
I was looking for something about Larry online...typed in Larry Herrera and got your thread with the photos!!!
Thank you so much for those. I'm going to attempt to print them off the site.
Anymore memories of the band and Larry are much appreciated.
Wow, David-------if I was in So Cal I'd blaze over and see you!
A little history, I joined Larry sometime 1978 when he was named
L.A.Rush. He'd just lost his bassist AND Mark Herrera had already come in as drummer. I answered an ad he'd posted in Hollywood. I was playing in a cover band called
Kamris, outta Simi. I went to his house there in Sylmar and took a gig tape. We hit it right off then and there. He told me we had a gig in a week so we practiced big time and did the show. No covers, only Larry's originals. After the show during rehearsals the following week I brought up that L.A.Rush was not a good name and mentioned 3 other bands witth "Rush" in their names. We all agreed and spent the next week going over names. We almost settled on "
Sabertooth" one day but Larry said the name had to have more blaze to it or something to that effect. I yelled at him he just said our name--BLAZE! But, of course, to be cool it needed 2 "Z's". So
BLAZZE it was and off we went! gawd we played constantly as you know and what a great time it was. Did you ever get over to our studio in Sylmar, the place that had built as a movie set? Jeez I got so many memories ....
Well, anyway, I loved Larry's whole family, his Mom, Tillie, was especially cool.
After I left in 1981, the band never recovered and I heard Mark Herrera got eventually busted for drugs, went to prison. Then a few years later I heard he was dead. Don't know the facts.
But man-oh-man L.A. was a hell of a great music scene then.
I am shocked and saddened to hear Larry is gone. I don't know whether to cry or yell. Maybe I'll do both. Gawd, he was a energy ball wasn't he? And remember he married Jamie and they had a girl who must be in her 30's by now. OMG...can't believe it. My heart is heavy as I re-read that line you wrote. damn .......
PS the only covers we ever played during Blazze was "You Really Got Me" and "Purple Haze"---our own versions of them of course. We had an extended version of them both that we only played once at Culver City Arena with Steppenwolf (during their comeback tour). Other than that we played those two in shorter versions. All else were originals. Man, I got stories....
. Larry used to come over to my and my roommate, Tom Haak's house in San Fernando after practice and we'd listen to recordings and listen to new music...Putting it straight, by Pat Travers...Sad Wings of Destiny by Judas Priest...and of course Oklands own Y&T.
