Steve Grimmett, Grim Reaper Singer, Dead at 62

[TravisW]

https://blabbermouth.net/news/grim-reap ... dead-at-62

[Duojett71]

That's a shame. He was a really good singer and I remember having that album 'Rock You To Hell' in High School. I remember that being a pretty kickass album. By all accounts he was a super nice guy. RIP Steve....

[TravisW]

That's a shame. He was a really good singer and I remember having that album 'Rock You To Hell' in High School. I remember that being a pretty kickass album. By all accounts he was a super nice guy. RIP Steve....

 

I always got the sense that he was a pretty salt-of-the-earth type of guy. He used to be married to a woman who lived a little ways out of town on the Minnesota side a little ways from here (Fargo, ND). One day in about 2004 I came into work and one of my co-workers who knew I was a metalhead asked, "Hey, have you ever heard of a guy named Steve who sang for a band called Grim Reaper?" I said that I had. "I wound up singing karaoke with him at the Felton (tiny MN town) bar last Saturday night." It seems a bit odd that I never crossed paths with him. He was pretty tight with Steve Stine, who's another Fargo local. They did a record together and actually did a CD release at a bar here in town and for some reason I couldn't go. That's another one of those weird regrets to look back on. 

[cvansickle]

Sad to hear this, I liked Grim Reaper's first album.

I met GR guitarist Nick Bowcott at a NAMM Show once. I think he was working for Marshall at the time. He was wearing a shirt and tie and had a short haircut!

[Dinosaur David B]

I met GR guitarist Nick Bowcott at a NAMM Show once. I think he was working for Marshall at the time. He was wearing a shirt and tie and had a short haircut!
 

He works for Sweetwater now, does a LOT of videos, and seems like a good bloke. I can't tell whether I think he's that good of a player. He certainly gets by.  But he's done some recent videos with Ben Eller, and Ben is a noticeably WAY better player. 

[Tatosh Guitar]

What a shame. By all accounts, he was one of the good guys, and metal to the core. I used to enjoy a lot of their stuff years ago.

I am hearing he was a non-compliant diabetic. Too bad, cause that people usually don't last very long. 

I met GR guitarist Nick Bowcott at a NAMM Show once. I think he was working for Marshall at the time. He was wearing a shirt and tie and had a short haircut!

He works for Sweetwater now, does a LOT of videos, and seems like a good bloke. I can't tell whether I think he's that good of a player. He certainly gets by. But he's done some recent videos with Ben Eller, and Ben is a noticeably WAY better player.

 

 And he is bald now LOL.

Bowcott seemed to be everywhere when I was a kid reading guitar mags. I started to get the idea he was this sorta god of hard rock and metal guitar cause he seemed to know everything and talk to everyone. 

Now that I have been watching his Sweetwater videos, he seems to be a very average player. Not bad, but not amazing either. His guests usually can play circles around him, IMHO. 

[Dinosaur David B]

he seems to be a very average player. Not bad, but not amazing either.

 

Exactly. An average Dino player. He's had great gigs, though. He was even doing Lick Library lesson videos a while back. The Sweetwater UK gig probably lets him pay his bills with his guitar, and raises his profile -- the way Wildwood really made Greg Koch. But Koch is (still) a gigging musician who tours in multiple projects, puts out albums, and does seminars (while still collecting a Wildwood check). I don't know that Bowcutt has any interest in doing that stuff, or just having a more manageable life clocking in and out. 

[merlo_zeppelin]

Greg Koch is a monster player. So are usually the Lick Library guys like Andy James (who has since landed the Five Finger Death Punch gig) and Danny Gill, who played with a little known late 80s hair band, Herricane Alice.

[TravisW]

he seems to be a very average player. Not bad, but not amazing either.


 

Exactly. An average Dino player. He's had great gigs, though. He was even doing Lick Library lesson videos a while back. The Sweetwater UK gig probably lets him pay his bills with his guitar, and raises his profile -- the way Wildwood really made Greg Koch. But Koch is (still) a gigging musician who tours in multiple projects, puts out albums, and does seminars (while still collecting a Wildwood check). I don't know that Bowcutt has any interest in doing that stuff, or just having a more manageable life clocking in and out. 

 

Nick Bowcott has had a few pretty good industry gigs in marketing for Marshall and Fender/Jackson/EVH in addition to Sweetwater. I chatted with him a bit at NAMM a bajillion years ago. Nice guy. I can't really blame anybody who moves from trying to make a living playing music to getting an industry gig that has paychecks clearing every two weeks. But I'll agree with the consensus after having read a lot of articles from Nick in guitar magazines that I had thought he'd be a lot better guitarist. That said, he's a good enough guitarist for anything I've heard him play on, but not necessarily astonishing. I suppose for some things, I tend to think that good enough might be better than astonishing, but that''d be a different thread. 
 

[Haffner]

A really good singer, I was pretty wild about Fear No Evil (Onslaught, too).

Excellent Metal imo.

RIP