Manny Charlton, founding guitarist of the Scottish hard rock band NAZARETH and producer of GUNS N’ ROSES early demos, has died at age 80. Charlton’s grandson, Jamie, first announced the news on Facebook, and the band later confirmed his passing, with bassist Pete Agnew writing: “I believe his death was sudden and not illness related.” No cause of death has been announced.
Charlton is famous for the guitar riffs that catapulted NAZARETH to stardom during the 1970s. He played on, produced and wrote most of their greatest hits, including “Broken Down Angel”, “Bad Bad Boy”, “Hair Of The Dog” and countless others, not to mention producing the prototype rock ballad “Love Hurts”, which was a Top 10 hit around the world in 1975 and stayed an unprecedented 60 weeks in the Norwegian chart.
Charlton released several high-quality albums since leaving NAZARETH in 1990, including “Hellacious” from 2014, which features an all-star lineup of classic rock legends, including Tim Bogert (VANILLA FUDGE, CACTUS),drummer Walfredo Reyes Jr. (SANTANA, TRAFFIC, Steve Winwood, Lindsey Buckingham),Vivian Campbell (DEF LEPPARD),Robert Sarzo, Steven Adler (GUNS N’ ROSES) and a talented New York-based singer, Robyn DeLarenzo.
In a 2012 interview, Charlton stated about “Hair Of The Dog”: “What that album did was set the band up for American success forever. Looking back, I’m still trying to understand why it was so successful. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s all about the attitude of the songs, performances and the rawness of the production. This was the first album that I produced for the band. Beginner’s luck, you might say.”
In 1986, Manny was brought in to produce GUNS N’ ROSES’ debut album, “Appetite For Destruction”. Charlton ended up helming GN’R’s 1986 Sound City demos that eventually received an official release on the 2018 “Appetite For Destruction” box set. As Manny told Legendary Rock Interviews a decade ago: “Axl’s [Rose] favorite singer is [NAZARETH frontman] Dan McCafferty. He said to his label, ‘Get me the guy who produced ‘Hair Of The Dog’ by NAZARETH’.” What Axl wants, Axl gets. “We left it saying: ‘If we could get our respective schedules together, then great‘. I was in the middle of recording ‘Cinema’ with NAZARETH and it didn’t happen.”
Last year Charlton returned to the studio for the final time, recording a new version of NAZARETH’s 1976 hit “Telegram” to celebrate his 80th birthday, alongside Norwegian rockers THE HALLOWEEN PROJECT, London’s THE FLUFFY JACKETS (whose 2014 debut album “Fighting Demons” featured Charlton), plus former WHITESNAKE bassist Neil Murray and TNT’s Ronni Le Tekrø.
RIP Manny Charlton
Source: Blabbermouth
