As first announced on TrunkNation on SiriusXM Volume 106:
Frankie Banali, drummer for Quiet Riot has passed away from his battle with pancreatic cancer, he was age 68. Additionally, Eddie will be on live today till 4P ET remembering Frankie and his wife is expected to call in.
Banali is most known for his lengthy career as the drummer for the multi-platinum heavy metal band Quiet Riot whose Metal Health was the first heavy metal album to reach number one on the Billboard charts and ushered in the 80’s metal band era. He is the only member to play on every album Quiet Riot has released since Metal Health. His signature tone, deep pocket and iconic drum intros are immortalized on many hits including Quiet Riot’s Cum On Feel The Noize, Metal Health (Bang Your Head) Billy Idol’s Mony Mony and L.A. Woman and albums such as Hughes/Thrall, W.A.S.P.’s Headless Children and Crimson Idol as well as over 100 other recordings as a session player in every genre of music. He did the arrangement on the Metal Health album, produced many Quiet Riot recordings and took over managing the band in 1993. He lived for playing live and performed for millions of fans around the world throughout his career.
He was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer on April 17th, 2019 and given six months to live. He put up an inspiringly brave and courageous 16-month battle to the end and continued playing live as long as he could. Standard chemotherapy stopped working and a series of strokes made the continuation on a clinical trial impossible. He ultimately lost the fight at 7:18 pm on August 20th in Los Angeles surrounded by his wife and daughter.
Frankie is survived by his devoted wife Regina, loving daughter Ashley, many dear friends, dedicated fans, and a menagerie of rescue animals all of whom are family. He was a long time advocate for animal rescue, a spokesperson for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and a sponsor of Children International. Donations in his name are encouraged for Fixnation.org, Aspca.org, Pancan.org, or Children.org. His wish for everyone is that you be your own health advocate for early detection so you may live long and rescue many animals.
Funeral plans will be announced at a later date.
15 Responses
I would not consider myself a QR fan by any means but Metal Health is a favorite song of mine. It will never be turned off let alone turned down whenever I hear it. I absolutley love that power riff.
RIP Mr. Banali
I never thought this would affect me as it does know Big fan of Quiet Riot since Mental health. A great overacted Drummer that you might not even know your listening to till you read liner notes. Found out awhile back that he Drummed on Billy Idol’s Don’t Stop Ep good rock album.
Hearing of his death brings me back to late 80s Where me and my friend Hombus were planning to start a band he with his guitar and me with my bass both not knowing how to play a lick. Went to his friends house who had a drum kit I asked can he play and he belted out the beginning drum lick of Wild and the Young almost flawlessly. That day at least I knew if he can play maybe we could too
Damn 2020 sucks
RIP Frankie condolences to the family you will be missed
Gods gonna be jamming with some Quiet Riot riffs with some great members there! (Kevin and Randy)
RIP Frankie, great drummer and seemed like an all around decent guy.
In 1986 I found myself backstage at Alice Cooper/Megadeth in Long Beach, CA…this guy sold me pass for 20 bucks…and it worked! I was …a pretty awestruck kid …a lot of rock stars back there…I had my Megadeth shirt on with leather jacket…Frankie just walked up to me and told me he liked my shirt…he was a sweetheart of a guy.
What a great memory, these are the ones that stick with you. That was really cool of him.
Thanks, for your comment…I was even more full of it then…lol…what I mean is..I was one of those thrash kids who looked down on glam …(even though I liked a lot of it…) so I acted like I wasn’t that impressed with him….and that just made him nicer towards me, he had my back back there…..when I say he was a sweetheart…he really was…
I wasn’t much if a Q.R fan but he did seem like a really laid back down to earth guy and I always draw inspiration when I see that in rock musicians. Quiet Riot had there brief moment in the sun(83) and as leader of that band he never came off as their success was more than what it was. Can’t say that for loads of other flash in the pan 80s band