Montrose
One of the first US heavy metal bands, Montrose was formed by session guitarist Ronnie Montrose, a sort of proto-Ted Nugent. Montrose's self-titled debut featured the line-up Bill Church, Denny Carmassi and Sammy Hagar. Hagar, along with producer Ted Templeman and engineer Don Landee would eventually shape the early Van Halen. "Space Station No. 5" and "Bad Motor Scooter" made "Montrose" a classic. Alan Fitzgerald replaced Church for "Paper Money", after which Hagar formed his solo band. Following releases increasingly alienated fans, but Montrose continued to reform sporadically up to 2003.
