Multitalented musician, songwriter and music producer Rick Derringer first came to prominence as a seventeen-year-old guitarist and singer in the 1960s. His band the McCoys topped the US singles chart with their debut “Hang On Sloopy” knocking the Beatles “Yesterday” off the top slot. The song has since become a garage rock/pop classic. The band had seven further hit singles before Rick before moved on to pursue a more varied solo career in the music industry.

Early influence – rock’n’roll

Rick said that his early fascination with music came from his parents who had a large record collection. His main instrumental influence was from his uncle, Jim Thornburg, who made a living as a singer/guitarist performing popular songs in Ohio. At the age of eight, Rick heard his uncle play guitar in his parent’s kitchen and said he knew immediately that he wanted to be a musician. He was given his first electric guitar for his ninth birthday. Rock’n’roll was at its height and the young Rick Derringer was bitten by the bug.

Solo success

Rick released his first solo album All American Boy in 1973, which spawned the hit single  “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo“ and established his success as a songwriter and solo musician. He also worked almost constantly throughout the 1970’s with brothers Edgar and Johnny Winter. He played lead guitar and produced all of their best selling albums. Rick played on and produced Edgar Winter’s hits “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride“. During the 1970s and 80s, he worked with Steely Dan, Cyndi Lauper, and the comedic “Weird Al” Yankovic, producing his 1984 Grammy Award-winning hit “Eat It“, a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat it”. He produced three songs for the Tom Hanks movie Bachelor Party  and continued touring and worked with his neighbour Todd Rundgren, Rick played session guitar on four of Todd’s solo albums. 

During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s Rick continued to play as a session musician, to work in studio production, and to tour. He famously played guitar on Air Supply‘s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” and Bonnie Tyler‘s “Total Eclipse of the Heart“. Rick has said that his guitar solo on “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” was the best solo he had ever had recorded.

Rick finds ‘the best life’

But the real best thing that ever happened to Rick was in 1997, when he became an Evangelical Christian. His conversion changed his whole outlook on life and he began to reassess his values, moving away from liberal thinking and aligning himself more with Christian conservatism. He described himself as well and truly a “Jesus freak“.

In 2001, Rick, his wife, and their children began releasing Christian music albums through Panda Studio Productions. They produced four albums together, “Aiming 4 Heaven” (2001), ^“Derringer X 2” (2001), “The Holiday Album Winter Wonderland” (2004), and “We Live” (2008).

The greatest success of all

Rick continued to work in both the secular and Christian music scene throughout the decades of the new millennium, playing guitar for various musicians, touring with their bands, and in music production.

Sadly, in the early 2020s Rick developed heart problems. He underwent major surgery, a triple bypass operation in March, 2025 which initially appeared to be successful. But his health declined over the next few weeks following the procedure and he died in May. His wife Jenna said that he died peacefully after being taken off life support.

Known in the music business for his exceptional talent from his teenage years, Rick only discovered his ‘best life’ when he met Jesus Christ at the age of 49. The music he produced up to that time was purely entertainment. It brought him fame and acclaim in his generation. But the music Rick and his family produced after he met Jesus leaves a more enduring legacy that will never fade or fall out of fashion.  

In late spring 2025 Rick sipped away peacefully into the eternal rest that Christ has promised to all who open their hearts to Him. He knew that Jesus had promised to be with him both in this life and the next. Jesus said,

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

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