George Kooymans was the guitarist and co-founder of the band that became The Netherlands biggest band passed away on July 22nd. . For those not familiar, aside from a few hits, the band that became Golden Earring was formed in 1961 as ‘The Tornados’, and by 1970 had dropped the ‘s’ from their name ‘Golden Earrings‘, and had the line up that would see the band until the end, in 2021 when it was announced the band would finish after Kooymans was diagnosed with ALS. Kooymans, Barry Hay (vocals, flute, guitar), Rinus Gerritsen (bass, keyboards), and Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums), played together from 1970, with their last performance from 2019 being released as ‘You Know We Love You – Live In Ahoy 2019‘.
George Kooymans was the band’s guitarist, as well as major songwriter, backing singer, and also sang lead on a number of songs throughout the band’s history. Kooymans co-wrote the band’s biggest known worldwide hit “Radar Live”, with singer Barry Hay in 1973, and he also penned the band’s massive 1982 comeback hit “Twilight Zone”. He sang lead on such classics as “Silver Ships”, “Buddy Joe”, “Lonesome DJ”, and “Hold Me Now”. Aside from the 26 Golden Earring studio albums, dating back to 1965 (Just Ear-rings), Kooymans also released solo albums in 1971 and ’87, and made 2 albums with Frank Carillo, the most recent Mirage, released in 2022.
AdditionalnLinks:
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/07/george-kooymans-co-founder-of-golden-earring-dies-aged-77/
https://www.guitarplayer.com/guitarists/golden-earring-radar-love-guitarist-george-kooymans-has-died
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