Golden Earring founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter George Kooymans is 77 today

[highplainsdem]

I hope it will be as good a day as possible for him, celebrating with friends and family. George has been battling ALS for years, and there's been very little news about him recently, though he was still releasing new music until a couple of years ago. There's a very long thread in the Lounge where I asked for healing vibes and prayers for him - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181674319 - in June of 2022, and that has both a lot of background on him and updates on his music and what his bandmates and friends and fans were doing, through early last year.

There would have been no Golden Earring without George. He's given us a lot of great music through his band and other artists he collaborated with or helped over the years, through songwriting and/or producing.

[Botany]

1. Rotterdam still Rocks

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[highplainsdem]

2. Great video! Cesar Zuidewijk and his two healthy bandmates are still going strong, though they

disbanded and the three of them haven't performed together since George's diagnosis.

The video you posted is from 33 years ago, which was already more than 30 years after the band was founded. Here's a long interview that Cesar did a few months ago

which I just found and won't have a chance to listen to till later today.

Cesar, a few months ago: