Leslie West

Leslie Abel West (born Weinstein; October 22, 1945 – December 23, 2020) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter.

He was the co-founder, guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Mountain.

West was named the 245th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023.

West was born in New York City on October 22, 1945, to Jewish parents.

He grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, and in East Meadow, Forest Hills, and Lawrence, New York.

After his parents divorced, he changed his surname to West.

His musical career began with the Vagrants, an R&B/blue-eyed soul-rock band influenced by the likes of the Rascals that was one of the few teenage garage rock acts to come out of the New York metropolitan area itself (as opposed to the Bohemian Greenwich Village scene of artists, poets, and affiliates of the Beat Generation, which produced bands like the Fugs and the Velvet Underground).

The Vagrants had two minor hits in the Eastern United States: 1966's "I Can't Make a Friend" and a cover of Otis Redding's "Respect" the following year.

Some of the Vagrants' recordings were produced by Felix Pappalardi, who was also working with Cream on their album Disraeli Gears.

In 1969, West and Pappalardi formed the pioneering hard rock act Mountain, which was also the title of West's debut solo album.

Rolling Stone identified the band as a "louder version of Cream".

With Steve Knight on keyboards and original drummer N. D. Smart, the band appeared on the second day of the Woodstock Festival on Saturday, August 16, 1969, starting an 11-song set at 9 pm.

The band's original incarnation saw West and Pappalardi sharing vocal duties and playing guitar and bass, respectively.

New drummer Corky Laing joined the band shortly after Woodstock.

They had success with "Mississippi Queen", which reached No. 21 on the Billboard charts and No. 4 in Canada.

It was followed by "Theme For an Imaginary Western", written by Cream bassist Jack Bruce.

Mountain is one of the bands considered to be forerunners of heavy metal.

After Pappalardi left Mountain to concentrate on production projects, West and Laing produced two studio albums and a live release with Jack Bruce under the name West, Bruce and Laing.

West, along with keyboard player Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat & Tears, recorded with the Who during the March 1971 Who's Next New York sessions.

Tracks from the sessions included a cover of Marvin Gaye's "Baby Don't You Do It," and early versions of "Love Ain't For Keepin'" and the Who's signature track "Won't Get Fooled Again".

Mountain reformed in 1973, only to break up again in late 1974.

West had acting roles in Family Honor (1973) and The Money Pit (1986).

During the mid '70s, West issued a pair of albums simply credited to himself, 1975's The Great Fatsby (which included a guest appearance by Mick Jagger on guitar) and 1976's The Leslie West Band (which featured Mick Jones on guitar, just before he formed Foreigner).

West also played guitar for the track "Bo Diddley Jam" on Bo Diddley's 1976 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll all-star album.

Also in 1976, West auditioned for Lynyrd Skynyrd after the departure of Ed King, but the vacated slot eventually went to Steve Gaines.

Since 1981, Mountain has continued to reform, tour, and record on a regular basis.

In May 1987, West played the band leader in a series of late night pilot shows for Howard Stern on the FOX network.

He taped a total of five shows with Stern, which never aired.

Stern went on to create a new show dubbed the Channel 9 show without West.

West continued to make occasional appearances on radio, notably on Stern's radio show.

West teamed up with Ian Gillan of Deep Purple renown, to co-write and play guitar on the song "Hang Me Out To Dry" from the Gillan album ToolBox, released in Europe in 1991.

West and Joe Bonamassa recorded Warren Haynes' "If Heartaches Were Nickels" together.

Though the tracks were not originally included on the album (recording restarted in England a few months later without West or Kooper), they appear as bonus tracks on the 1995 and 2003 reissues of Who's Next and on the 1998 reissue of Odds & Sods.

West contributed the music and co-wrote the lyrics to the song "Immortal" on Clutch's 2001 album Pure Rock Fury, which was a reworked cover of the song "Baby I'm Down" from West's first album.

West released it on Guitarded (2005), and Bonamassa on A New Day Yesterday (2000).

In 2005 he contributed to Ozzy Osbourne's Under Cover album, performing guitar on a remake of "Mississippi Queen".

In addition to fronting Mountain, West continued to record and perform on his own.

His solo album, entitled Blue Me, was released in 2006 on the Blues Bureau International label.

West was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.

In 2007, Mountain released Masters of War on Big Rack Records, an album featuring 12 Bob Dylan covers that saw Osbourne providing guest vocals on a rendition of the title track.