Reminds me a bit of Brad Delp, the lead singer of Boston who committed suicide. People with difficult childhoods seem to go into entertainment to get approval from a large number of people.
Difference was Delp didn’t have cancer...Delp’s death still shakes me to the core to this day...how he killed himself after literally appearing the night before doing a Beatles tribute show and singing Happy Birthday laughing and smiling and having a great time only to go home and 36 hrs later he turns on a coal grill in his bathroom and seals the door...yet left notes all over the house warning people to be careful of the fumes so they wouldn’t get hurt.
With Brad it was his pain from what Scholz was doing to him by not letting his friends and old members perform in Boston again...he hated hurting his friends and being caught in the middle of it. He really was the nicest guy in music.
Ronnie was just one of those tortured souls his entire life...even Sammy Hagar pointed that out in his book “Red”. Sammy tried so hard to get Ronnie back to normal but could never do it...the guy was just too depressed or dealt with inner demons from childhood he just couldn’t kick.
Hagar to this day says the first Montrose record is the best thing he ever did.