Derringer's caretaker, Tony Wilson, shared the news on Facebook, and Guitar Player later reported it. The guitarist's wife, Jenda Derringer, told TMZ he died "peacefully" in his sleep after being taken off life support following a medical episode.
Born Richard Dean Zehringer on Aug. 5, 1947, in Celina, Ohio, and raised in the nearby Fort Recovery, Derringer began his burgeoning music career in earnest when he received his first guitar on his ninth birthday. ("I was a natural," he told Guitar Player in 2024.) He and his brother Randy Zehringer (later known as Randy Z) formed a band called the McCoys in their teens, with Derringer handling guitar and lead vocals. The McCoys scored a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965 with "Hang on Sloopy," which became the official rock song of Ohio. The band scored one more Top 10 hit with a cover of the R&B staple "Fever," and a cover of Ritchie Valens' "Come On, Let's Go" reached the Top 40.
In 1970, the McCoys backed Texas blues-rocker Johnny Winter on his album Johnny Winter And, which also served as the group's name. Derringer soon began working with Winter's brother, Edgar Winter, contributing to the Edgar Winter Group's multiplatinum 1972 debut album, They Only Come Out at Night.
Derringer appeared on several more Edgar Winter Group albums as he readied his solo career, releasing his debut solo album, All American Boy, in 1973. The LP contained Derringer's version of "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo," which first appeared on Johnny Winter And. The solo version became Derringer's signature song, reaching No. 23 on the Hot 100 and showcasing his incendiary guitar chops. (It later appeared on the soundtrack to the 1993 stoner comedy Dazed and Confused and season 4 of Netflix's Stranger Things.)
Did I just hear Keith Richards chuckling? Again? Jeez...
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