Rock & Roll Heaven: Ty Longley

Embed from Getty Images
Members of Great White perform tribute to Ty Longley

Seven years ago tonight one of the greatest tragedies in music history happened. At about 11:05pm on what was a Thursday night, the band 'Great White' took the stage at a Rhode Island club known as 'The Station' and began to play the opening strains of their song "Desert Moon".

For 99 of the bands fans, and one of it's own members, what appeared to be the beginning of a night of great music would instead turn out to be the final moments of their lives.

As Ty Longley blasted into the opening chords of "Desert Moon" with his bandmates, the 31-year old was enjoying all that the rock and roll life had to offer. He was young, playing the music that he loved in front of enthusiastic fans for a living, and had a beautiful girlfriend who was expecting the couple's first child.

The Sharon, PA native Longley had joined Great White just three years earlier, well after the band had enjoyed their greatest success during the big-hair 'glam rock' days of the late 1980's. Back then the song "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" was heard across radios everywhere and the accompanying music video was an MTV staple. By that fateful night in 2003, the band was struggling for survival.

Great White had formally broken up during the period of 2000-2001, but original members Jack Russell and Mark Kendall decided to put on a tour together. Doing classic Great White songs and some of Russell's solo work, the band actually billed itself as "Jack Russell's Great White". Some of the original band's fans simply referred to them as 'Fake White', and it was this group that Longley joined as a guitarist and keyboard player.