Timothy Patrick Kelly (January 13, 1963 – February 5, 1998) was an American

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

ist for the band Slaughter.

Career

Born in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County. It was the federal capital, capital of the United States from November 1 until D ...

, Kelly was a self-taught guitar player and began his music career around the sixth grade. He was inspired by other guitarists such as

Rick Derringer Richard Dean Zehringer (August 5, 1947 – May 26, 2025), known professionally as Rick Derringer, was an American musician, producer and songwriter. He gained success in the 1960s with his band, the McCoys. Their debut single, " Hang On Sloopy", ...

and

Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English-American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who rose to prominence as a member of the rock bands the Herd and Humble Pie. Later in his career, Frampton found significant success as a s ...

. He played in a few bands during his career which included Hellion, NEWHAVEN, and Allegiance (that was fronted by his brother Bryan Kelly) along with other bands. After no real commercial success with these bands, he was chosen as guitarist for the group Slaughter which was formed in the fall of 1988. With Slaughter, Kelly had many writing credits. On the first album of the band ''

Stick It to Ya ''Stick It to Ya'' is the debut studio album by American glam metal band Slaughter (band), Slaughter. It was released in 1990 by Chrysalis Records. It sold over 2 million copies and became one of the biggest albums of 1990. "Up All Night" (No. 27) ...

'', he wrote and performed an instrumental piece called "Thinking of June" which he dedicated to his sister who died in 1982. In all, Kelly released four studio albums with the band and two live albums, the last of which Eternal Live was released posthumously and includes a pictorial and video tribute to Kelly which was quickly put together by Blas Elias. Tim had been working on some songs, which two bandmates refused to listen to, so he with Blas Elias worked on a separate project from Slaughter before his death.

Death

On February 5, 1998, Kelly was involved in a fatal

car accident A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. T ...

while traveling on Highway 96 in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. Kelly's vehicle was hit head-on when an 18 wheeler crossed the middle line. Kelly was transported to a Bagdad, Arizona clinic where he was pronounced dead from internal injuries. At the time of the accident, the driver of the 18 wheeler was under the influence of at least three different drugs including

amphetamines Substituted amphetamines, or simply amphetamines, are a chemical class, class of compounds based upon the amphetamine structure; it includes all derivative (chemistry), derivative compounds which are formed by replacing, or substitution reacti ...

. He was later sentenced to three years in prison. Kelly is buried at Saint Ignatius Cemetery in

Yardley, Pennsylvania Yardley is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. Yardley borders the Delaware River and Ewing Township, New Jersey to its east and Lower Makefield Township to its north, west, and south. The United States Post Office assigns ...

References

External links

* * 1963 births 1998 deaths American heavy metal guitarists American male guitarists American heavy metal singers Glam metal musicians Singers from New Jersey Musicians from Trenton, New Jersey Road incident deaths in Arizona Slaughter (band) members American lead guitarists 20th-century American singers Guitarists from New Jersey 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians {{US-rock-guitarist-stub