| Ron Keel | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Ron Keel |
| Also known as | Ronnie Lee Keel |
| Born | 1961 |
| Genres | Heavy metal Glam metal Country |
| Occupations | Singer Songwriter |
| Labels | Gold Mountain/A&M Shrapnel |
| Associated acts | Keel K2 Featuring Ron Keel Steeler IronHorse Saber Tiger Fair Game |
| Website | ronkeel.com |
Ron Keel (born 1961) is a Heavy metal vocalist and guitarist for a number of bands from the 1980s to the modern day, including the glam metal band Keel.
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Ron Keel started his music career with a Tennessee-based band known as Lust. He came to Los Angeles with his band Steeler, which later on featured Yngwie Malmsteen, Rik Fox and Mark Edwards. Steeler became one of many of L.A.'s '80's rock acts who could not withstand the test of time. Malmsteen was the first to leave, opting to play with the band Alcatrazz (featuring Graham Bonnet) before achieving success with his own band. However, Steeler was able to record one self-titled album, released in 1984 on Shrapnel Records. At one point, Steeler had the highest selling independent record of all-time for Shrapnel.
After the demise of Steeler and a failed audition to join Black Sabbath, Ron formed a new band and simply called it Keel. The band secured a record deal with Gold Mountain / A&M Records. Keel toured the world and sold 2 million records throughout its duration. KISS vocalist/bassist Gene Simmons produced two of Keel's albums: The Right to Rock and The Final Frontier. The band regrouped in 2008 and are touring to celebrate their 25th anniversary.[1]
After the release of "Larger than Live" Ron formed a group with four women called Fair Game. Two of the songs released by the band were featured on the soundtrack to the movie Bad Channels. The remaining tracks were left unreleased until recently when Metal Mayhem records finally put out the only album from the project: Beauty and the Beast.
In 1997 he collaborated with Japan's legendary guitarist Akihito Kinoshita, becoming a vocal asset for Kinoshita's heavy metal band Saber Tiger, at which time "Project One" (what could be seen as a project that fuses "western" techniques with their own whilst in a partially dis-banded state) was recorded and released on the same year with Saber Tiger. The album was considerably successful, with the release being one of the band's most successful to date.
Outside of Keel, Ron also plays country music, sometimes performing under the name "Ronnie Lee Keel." In 2000, Ron formed IronHorse, which mixed country with hard rock. He left the band in 2007 to focus on other aspects of his career.[2] He also performed as part of a Brooks & Dunn tribute band in the Country Superstars Tribute at the Fitz Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Prior to reforming Keel, Ron formed a band in 2008 called K2 Featuring Ron Keel, which performed many of the songs throughout his career.
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