Metal Bulletin Zine: Phil Kennemore (Y&T) (1953

In remembrance of Y&T bassist Phil Kennemore (October 20, 1953 – January 7, 2011)

Y&T is the most fun heavy metal rock and roll: the melodies, the riffs, the singing, the catchy songs, and of course, a mighty rhythm section!

Phil Kennemore was there at the beginning of Y&T in 1974 until the band's first breakup in 1990, and then again when the band was reactivated in 1995 until 2010, when he left the band after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

I am a fan of Y&T and enjoy a ton of their songs across the decades. Of course, with a long tenure with the band, that means that Phil is there for all the hits, rockers, anthems, and ballads.

Y&T has sold over four million albums worldwide. Across five decades, they achieved five Top 100 albums and earned extensive MTV rotation with signature hits like "Summertime Girls," "Mean Streak," and "Don't Stop Runnin'." A powerful band capable of reproducing the sound of their records, they also reached audiences with major songs such as "Rescue Me," "Forever," and "Contagious."

Here, I'm sharing the story of Phil, taken directly from the band's official website:

Phil Kennemore’s first band consisted of five guys; the only problem was that nobody could play. Phil says he didn’t even know what a bass was-he just knew he wanted to play. Since everyone in that first band played guitar, Phil took two strings off his guitar and decided to be a bass player.

At around age thirteen, Phil bought a St. George guitar at a pawn shop for $35 and a sparkly carrying case for $45. The first song he ever learned to play was Gloria by Them. The very first bass he bought was a no-name bass (Winston?); it was as warped as a Jai Alai racket and cost a mere $5. Phil continued playing (yet he still wasn’t sure what a bass player’s role was). “I would just follow the guitar players. If they were on the third dot, I went to the third dot.” The first song Phil learned that really had bass lines in it was Monterey by Eric Burdon and the Animals. Next, he learned Crossroads by Cream-Jack Bruce’s bass lines (all bass players at that time had to do that). Like so many musicians, after Phil saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, he knew come hell or high water, he was determined to be in a rock band, and so he carried on. He was then smitten by the velvet-clad, mod look and sound of Rod Stewart and the Faces and that vibe furthered his desire to be in a band.

Prior to Y&T, Phil played in many other bands (his first band was Crystal Sunshine-the name explains the era); they started off like everyone else playing anywhere they could (Elk’s Lodge, Job’s daughters, parties). While in junior high school, instead of listening to the teachers, Phil would draw a guitar neck on his arm and practice fingering chords. At that time, mentally, he had already decided that he wanted to play in a band; he only did enough schoolwork to keep authority from coming down on him. If he wasn’t practicing guitar on his arm in class, he was doodling-drawing musical equipment instead of paying full attention to the teacher. At home, Phil created his own world-he took the mattress off his bed, put plywood on his bed frame, and made his very own stage where he’d place his amp and perform on “his” stage.

When Phil was in high school, he started a band with his brother Jeff. The band used to perform after school at Jeff’s junior high school on the basketball courts. Phil had already known Leonard Haze (since he was eleven years old), but on one particular day while performing on the basketball courts, along came this frizzy headed dude-Dave Meniketti. That’s the first time Phil remembers meeting Dave. The guys jammed a song together that afternoon. Another tidbit: once Phil’s brother Jeff auditioned for a band of Leonard’s called The Mustangs. Phil didn’t own a real instrument until he was 18. He rode the bus thirteen miles to a music store and paid $55 as a down payment for a used black Fender Jazz. The next month he paid another $50, and then he paid $5 a week until his bass was paid off ($250 total). He rode the bus every week just to smell that bass; besides the smell of excitement, that bass had a certain smell to it that he loved (the wax, the wood). That bass is the same black Fender Jazz that Phil used his entire career with Y&T.

In the early months of Yesterday & Today, the bass player at the time wanted to move on to rhythm guitar in the band instead of bass, so Leonard and Dave called Phil to join on bass. Soon thereafter, they kicked out the old bass player (who was the new guitar player) and they started writing original material. In 1974, Yesterday & Today won first place at the Hayward Battle of the Bands. The band that took second place had a rhythm guitar player named Joey Alves. A week later, Phil, Leonard and Dave asked Joey to join the band – and the rest was Y&T history.

The bass players Phil used as models for the style he felt Y&T needed were Leo Lyons (Ten Years After) and Gary Thain (Uriah Heap), along with many others. Phil’s diverse musical interests would be shocking to Y&T fans. He liked every style of music and said he could not condemn any particular genre (only people with narrow minds should be condemned). He found validity in all music-from the corniest mellow stuff to the most avant garde. Phil always fancied himself more as a songwriter/creative person than a musician. Along with Leonard Haze, Phil performed and recorded Marty Balin’s rock opera Rock Justice.

Phil Kennemore, original bassist for Y&T passed away on January 7, 2011, from lung cancer. Phil will forever be missed and his mark on Y&T and rock music will continue to be celebrated by the band and by fans worldwide.

This band is multidimensional and does so many moods so well. Usually, I would not recommend watching a full concert, but Y&T sounds so good live that in this case, if you like American big rock, American classic heavy rock, and American hard rock heavy metal, this concert shows the various moods that the band does. I could have chosen other concerts from later on in the 1980s when they had become even meaner, leaner, well-oiled touring machines, but I like this video; it is from the mighty, legendary Reading Festival.

In this concert, Phil Kennemore is the gentleman in the red pants! By the way, he does the lead vocals on the song "Squeeze" at about the 26-minute mark.

In general, the critics agree that the band issued a classic trilogy: in 1981 (Earthshaker), 1982 (Black Tiger), and 1983 (Meanstreak). These albums are recommended for new fans. Anyway, here are also some of the classics!

Y&T - UK Reading Festival 29-8-1982