Kelly Dean Keagy (born September 15, 1952) is an American drummer and vocalist, best known for his work with the hard rock band

Night Ranger Night Ranger is an American hard rock band from San Francisco, California. The band formed in 1982 and experienced a surge of popularity during the 1980s with the release of several successful albums and hit singles. Guitarist Brad Gillis and ...

. Keagy sang lead vocals on several of their hits, such as "

Sister Christian "Sister Christian" is a song by the American hard rock band Night Ranger. A power ballad, it was released in March 1984 as the second single from their album '' Midnight Madness''. It was ranked No. 32 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s. It ...

", "Sing Me Away", and " Sentimental Street".

Biography

Early years

Keagy started out his career as a drummer but over the years gained experience in many aspects of the music business. The day after Kelly graduated high school, he packed his bags and left home to pursue being a full-time drummer. After years of playing the club circuit, he became the touring drummer for the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

band

Rubicon The Rubicon (; ; ) is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, just south of Cesena and north of Rimini. It was known as ''Fiumicino'' until 1933, when it was identified with the ancient river Rubicon, crossed by Julius Caesar in 49 BC. The ri ...

. Along with fellow members

Jack Blades Jack Martin Blades (born April 24, 1954) is an American rock musician. He has worked in the bands Rubicon (American band), Rubicon, Night Ranger (as bassist and one of the lead vocalists), and Damn Yankees (band), Damn Yankees (as one of the f ...

and

Brad Gillis Bradley Frank Gillis (born June 15, 1957) is an American guitarist most famous for playing with the band Night Ranger. He grew up in Alameda, California. He was in the band Rubicon during the 1970s before Night Ranger. Since forming in 1979, Gi ...

, he formed the band

in 1979.

Night Ranger

After the band gained some experience with local gigs in San Francisco, promoter Bill Graham booked Night Ranger as the opening act for such bands as

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Judas Priest have also been referred to as one of the p ...

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer * Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp ** Santana 20 ** Santan ...

, and

the Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1970. Known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies, the band has been active for over five decades, with their greate ...

. They became one of the more popular mainstream

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

bands of the mid-1980s. Night Ranger's first album, '' Dawn Patrol'', released in 1982, reached No. 38 on the U.S. charts and sold over 1 million copies, yet it was 1983's '' Midnight Madness'' that established the band as a commercial force. Featuring the hits " (You Can Still) Rock in America" and "

", the record peaked at No. 15 and sold over 2 million copies. The 1985 album '' 7 Wishes'' was even more successful, reaching No. 10 on the charts and selling over 3 million copies. In 1988, keyboardist

Alan Fitzgerald Francis Alan Fitzgerald (born July 16, 1949) is an American musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known as the second bassist of Montrose and as keyboardist for Night Ranger. He has also performed with Gamma, and former Montrose bandma ...

left Night Ranger, shortly after the recording of '' Man in Motion''. Then, in 1989, after the ''Man in Motion'' tour, front man Jack Blades left Night Ranger, with the group disbanding. In 1991, Night Ranger reformed with Gary Moon replacing Jack Blades on bass and lead vocals. Then in 1996, the classic Night Ranger lineup of Jack Blades/Kelly Keagy/

/ Jeff Watson/

reunited. Fitzgerald departed in 2003, and Watson in 2007. As of 2017, Night Ranger continues to tour and record new music with the current lineup of Jack Blades, Kelly Keagy, Brad Gillis, Kerri Kelli and Eric Levy. Their most recent studio release, '' Don't Let Up'', came out in 2017.

The Mob

In 2005, Keagy joined guitarist

Reb Beach Richard Earl "Reb" Beach Jr. (born August 31, 1963) is an American rock guitarist. He is a member of the bands Winger and Whitesnake. Career After graduating from Fox Chapel Area High School and attending Berklee College of Music in the ea ...

, vocalist

Doug Pinnick Douglas Theodore Pinnick (born September 3, 1950), sometimes stylized as dUg Pinnick or simply dUg, is an American musician best known as the bass guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and songwriter for the hard rock and progressive metal band King's X. ...

and keyboardist Timothy Drury to form the group the Mob. They released a self-titled album of the same name.

2000s

In 2000, he performed on Jim Peterik's album ''Jim Peterik and the World Stage''. In 2001, Keagy released the first of his two solo albums, performing drums and vocals on '' Time Passes''. In 2007, he released his second solo work, '' I'm Alive''. Keagy is a core member of the band Scrap Metal, along with Mark Slaughter and Gunnar Nelson.

Equipment

Keagy currently plays DW drums and pedals, Evans drumheads,

Vic Firth Everett Joseph "Vic" Firth (June 2, 1930 – July 26, 2015) was an American musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), a company that makes percussion sticks and mallets. He was also known for his association ...

signature drumsticks, and Sabian cymbals, mostly using their HH series.

Discography

Solo albums

*'' Time Passes'' (2001) *'' I'm Alive'' (2007)

with Night Ranger

*'' Dawn Patrol'' (1982) *'' Midnight Madness'' (1983) *'' 7 Wishes'' (1985) *''

Big Life Big Life was a record label established in 1987 by Jazz Summers and Tim Parry. It featured hundreds of releases from artists such as The Orb, Stare, Yazz, Junior Reid, Coldcut, De La Soul, and Damage. In 1999, the label was put into receiver ...

'' (1987) *'' Man in Motion'' (1988) *''Feeding off the Mojo'' (1995) *''Neverland'' (1997) *''Seven'' (1998) *''Hole in the Sun'' (2007) *'' Somewhere in California'' (2011) *'' High Road'' (2014) *'' Don't Let Up'' (2017) * '' ATBPO'' (2021)

with King of Hearts

*''King of Hearts'' (1989)

with The Mob

*'' The Mob'' (2005)

Guest appearances

– '' Gilrock Ranch'' (1993) *Jim Peterik and The World Stage – ''Jim Peterik and The World Stage'' (2000)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keagy, Kelly 1952 births Living people American rock drummers Night Ranger members American male singers Musicians from Glendale, California Drummers from Los Angeles 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 20th-century American male musicians Frontiers Records artists Rubicon (American band) members The Mob (American band) members