Iron Butterfly drummer Ron Bushy passes away at the age of 78!
Ron Bushy, the drummer for the band Iron Butterfly is no more!
Bushy died on 29th August, Sunday after battling with esophageal cancer at the UCLA Santa Monica Hospital. He was 78-years-old.
The news of Ron’s passing was announced by the band itself via statement shared on the band’s social media. Writing on Facebook, Iron Butterfly stated, “Ron Bushy our beloved legendary drummer of Iron Butterfly has passed away peacefully, with his wife Nancy by his side, at 12:05am on August 29th at UCLA Santa Monica Hospital.”
“All three of his daughters were also with him. He was a real fighter. He was born Dec 23, 1941. He will be deeply missed!” the post read.
Ron Bushy was known to be the only members of the band who appeared in all the six albums by Iron Butterfly. Besides, the drummer is prominently known for his iconic drum solo on the Iron Butterfly’s 1968 hit called “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”
Before joining the Iron Butterfly, Ron was a part of another band called Voxmen. Finally, as the Iron Butterfly’s former drummer Bruce Morse left due to a family emergency, Ron Bushy filled the position and eventually became a regular member of the group.
It was in the year 1966 that Bushy joined the band, which split for the first time in 1971. In fact, Bushy played a big role in reuniting the band in 1974, which then released its fifth and sixth albums titled “, “Scorching Beauty” and “Sun and Steel.” However, two to three years after bringing the band back together, Bushy decided to leave the band in 1977, but eventually came back the very next year.
In fact, the band survived yet another separation in 1985, reuniting in 1987, and Bushy came to be known as the most consistent band member. Where other band members were leaving and being replaced, Bushy remained on his drums rocking as always.
However, Iron Butterfly is not the only band that Bushy played drums for. He has also played for two other bands- “Gold” and “Magic.”
Bushy is the third person from the band’s second album “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’s” team to have passed away after the guitarist Eric Brann and bassist Lee Dorman.
Last year, in an interview with Its Psychedelic Baby magazine, Bushy had shared a memory from the time when the Iron Butterfly created their second album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. He told, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was written as a slow country ballad, about one and a half minutes long. I was making a pizza at the Galaxy on Sunset Blvd., where we were playing to help support the band. We lived in Laurel Canyon off of Kirkwood Drive. I came home late one night and Doug [Ingle] had been drinking a whole gallon of Red Mountain wine. I asked him what he had done, while he has been playing a slow ballad on his Vox keyboard.”
Ron had further stated at the time, “It was hard to understand him because he was so drunk… so I wrote it down on a napkin exactly how it sounded phonetically to me… ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’. It was supposed to be In The Garden Of Eden. About a year later with a whole new line up, Erik Braunn and Lee Dorman we took it to rehearsal and started to actually put the song together. After many months and three months of opening for Jefferson Airplane the song got longer and longer, taking on a life of its own.”
The music industry is bummed with the news of Ron’s passing. The SiriusXM host Eric Alper shared a photo of the legendary drummer and tweeted, “Ron Bushy, the drummer for Iron Butterfly, has died at the age of 79. That’s him in the classic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” and he’s the only member to appear on every studio from the group!”
The Iron Butterfly’s official Twitter handle described Ron as a real fighter.
Remembering Ron, a fan wrote on Twitter, “Crushed that we lost another great drummer. He autographed the sheet music to his signature hit. Farewell, Ron Bushy.”
The English actor and rock singer Michael Des Barres also paid a tribute to Bushy. Des Barres tweeted, “Iron Butterfly Drummer Ron Bushy Dead at 79 via @TMZ. An extraordinary gifted drummer… Ome of the very first to make Drums a virtuoso instrument in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. RIP.”
Sharing a sweet memory, a fans of the band Iron Butterfly and drummer Ron Bushy tweeted, “The first, longest and most important “driveway moment” of my life occurred when I was returning home from work at age 16 and first heard the long version (with the extended drum solo) of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” on the radio. I owe that to the now late Ron Bushy.”
Another Ron Bushy fan shared the grief tweeting, “Damn… the heavens just got an extended drum solo. RIP Iron Butterfly drummer Ron Bushy… Disappointed but relieved faceClinking beer mugsMultiple musical notes In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was one of the first rock records I ever got as a youngster…damn.”
Ron Bushy passed away at the age of 78 due to esophageal cancer on 29th August 2021. He’s survived by his wife, Nancy, their three daughters and six grandchildren.
