Michael Stanley legendary rocker and radio host dies at 72 after battle

Music legend Michael Stanley has died. The Cleveland musician, who ruled the local airwaves in the late 1970s and early 1980s died Friday after a seven-month battle with lung cancer, his family announced. He was 72. Stanley had worked for the past 30 years as a disc jockey at WNCX-FM. On Wednesday, the Cleveland radio station released a statement from Stanley’s family, disclosing that he had “serious health issues” and asking fans to “keep Michael in your thoughts and prayers.” He hadn’t been on the air since Feb. 19. On Saturday, WNCX announced that Stanley had died peacefully “with his family by his side.”Born Michael Stanley Gee on March 25, 1948, in Cleveland, Stanley fell in love with rock ’n’ roll the first time he heard Elvis Presley, and formed a garage band, the Scepters, in 1965 as a student at Rocky River High School. Stanley earned a sports scholarship to Hiram College, where he played baseball, worked as a disc jockey on the student radio station, majored in comparative religion and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1970. During his sophomore year, he joined the Tree Stumps, a four-piece band, and got his first big break during a gig at Otto’s Grotto in Cleveland.“A producer, an actual record producer just like in the movies, stumbled into this club one night,” Stanley recalled years later. “He was from New York and happened to be in Cleveland visiting a friend.”ABC Records’ Bill Szymczyk, who had produced B. B. King and would go on to handle the James Gang, Joe Walsh, the Eagles and the J. Geils Band, signed the Tree Stumps to a contract. The group changed its name to Silk and recorded the album “Smooth as Raw Silk,” which dropped off the charts after one week. With Szymczyk in the control room, Stanley recorded two solo albums, “Michael Stanley” (1972) and “Friends and Legends” (1973) while working full time as a manager of the Disc Records retail chain. His boss fired him in 1974 for promoting his solo albums at a rival store. The timing was awful because Stanley’s wife, Libby, had recently given birth to twin daughters, Sarah and Anna. He formed the Michael Stanley Band in 1974 with guitarist Jonah Koslen, bassist Daniel Pecchio and drummer Tommy Dobeck. The group’s first album, “You Break it … You Bought it!” was released in 1975.“None of this has been planned out,” Stanley said in 2017. “Even the band was kind of started by accident and we thought, ‘Well, if this goes on for a couple of years, it’ll be a fun thing to look back on.’ I certainly never thought it would be going on this far down the line.”Managed by Belkin Productions, the Michael Stanley Band was highly prolific, releasing an album a year over the next decade. Known to fans as MSB, the group became the first Cleveland band to headline the Coliseum, performing May 27, 1978, with special guests REO Speedwagon and Cheap Trick. Tickets cost $7. Its lineup evolved over the years.


All data is taken from the source: http://usatoday.com
Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/03/06/michael-stanley-legendary-musician-and-radio-host-dies-72/4609926001/


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