Cleveland rock legend Michael Stanley and famous local radio and TV personality, dead at 72

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Almost 50 years ago, on his first self-titled solo album, Michael Stanley offered a melancholy view on mortality:

Here is a song for a friend who is soon gone

A friend whose life and mine are intertwined

Leaving soon for the rest of your life / Leaving part of you behind

Stanley, who died on Friday at the age of 72 from lung cancer, leaves more than a small part of himself behind in his hometown Cleveland – and a hole in a city where he was a king of rock ‘n ‘roll and a lot – Award-winning and beloved radio and television personality.

To say that Stanley was part of the Cleveland fabric is anything but a cliché; It was the home he never left, and a place the man dubbed “the Messiah of Cuyahoga” by Last Call Cleveland, who he carried with him whenever he toured the country to play heartland rock hits like “He Can’t Love You “,” Lover “,” Falling in Love Again and “My Town”.

“I have had three distinct and very good careers with music, television and radio,” Stanley told The Plain Dealer in 2019, before receiving the Cleveland Arts Prize award for his work as a whole. “Did we do everything we wanted to do? No. But we do things we never think about. I’ve been making a living doing something I love. This is what I dreamed of as a teenager and ended up doing it. “

Stanley’s family released a statement on Saturday through its social media pages. “Michael battled lung cancer for seven months with the same strength and dignity that he carried throughout his life. He will always be remembered as a loving father, brother, husband, a loyal friend and the leader of one of Cleveland’s most successful rock bands. “

Another Ohio rocker and longtime friend Joe Walsh, who played on Stanley’s second solo album and covered his song “Rosewood Bitters”, said: “Michael was the king of Cleveland and, of course, the Michael Stanley Band if became a Midwestern power. Michael has always been a master at composing. His songs have a way of getting into your head and become songs that you end up singing to yourself indefinitely … His music will always be part of me ”

Holly Gleason, a noted music critic and author, followed Stanley’s career as a fan and journalist and later became his friend. “If you were a boy who was growing up in Cleveland in the 70s or 80s, he was our hand on the bronze ring,” she said. “He was the promise of rock ‘n’ roll delivered. He believed in rock ‘n’ roll. He believed in sports. He believed in Cleveland.

“He was so emblematic of that raging heart that he doesn’t care if he’s going to lose – he’s still going to leave everything on the pitch. And when he wrote these songs, those children in a city where the river caught fire and the lake died, they felt that their lives mattered. “

Michael Belkin of Live Nation, whose father managed Stanley for more than 40 years, recalled that affection was part of a unique two-way relationship between the artist and his fans.

“In my entire career, I have never seen another artist as patient and polite as Michael was with his fans,” said Belkin. “Backstage, pre- and post-show meetings and greetings, dinners and benefits, I saw him interact with thousands of supporters over the years, and he was always pleasant and courteous. Ever. Every time.”

Born Michael Stanley Gee (his father, Francis Stanley Gee, was a local radio personality), Stanley started playing in bands at Rocky River High School – where he also played baseball and basketball. The Sceptors gave way to Establishments and Tree Stumps at Hiram College, which Stanley attended with a baseball scholarship. He majored in Sociology and Comparative Religion, but music was where his heart was. Engineer-producer Bill Szymczyk signed Tree Stumps with ABC Records, although suggesting a name change that became Silk for the 1969 release “Smooth As Raw Silk.

“Basically, I signed the band because of him,” said Szymczyk, who continued a relationship with Stanley that includes his latest album, “Tough Room”, which he brought to Cleveland to play for Stanley in late February. “I liked his music and his vocal quality. For me, he was always a very, very good writer, and it only got better over the years ”.

After Silk’s death, Szymczyk brought Stanley to the Colorado-based Tumbleweed Records label, producing his self-titled solo album and “Friends and Legends”, both in 1973 and the latter featuring Walsh and a group of Colorado “all-stars” “that added polishing and biting. A year later, Stanley formed the Michael Stanley Band, a muscular blue-collar group whose dynamic performances were mentioned in the same breath as their populist rock peers like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger and John Mellencamp.

“For people in our area, music meant a lot – this is part of the Midwest,” said original drummer Tommy Dobeck, who had Stanley as his best man and made him his son’s best man. “There were always baseball caps and sneakers, more than glitter. I came from another band (Circus) that was big on satin; I said to Michael, ‘Am I going to have to use anything?’ He said, ‘I don’t give a shit what you wear. Just play! “

David Spero, who was introduced to Stanley by Joe Walsh, managed Stanley throughout the 1970s, including a contract with a major label with Epic Records. “I think he’s probably one of the most underrated writers in our country in this kind of Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen’s storytelling school,” said Spero, who had lunch with Stanley almost every second Friday.

Stanley, of course, has never achieved the same kind of multi-platinum success as these artists; His best-selling album, “You Can’t Fight Fashion”, from 1983, reached 64th position on the Billboard 200 – although there was some national notoriety through TV appearances with Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin and the “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. “

“In my entire career, I never got him a monstrous hit album – it always pissed me off,” said Szymczyk, noting that other notable producers – including Mutt Lange, Don Gehman and Eddie Kramer – couldn’t make Stanley overcome the obstacle, too. “I was like, ‘Damn, Bob (Seger) sure blew up. Why can’t we get Michael too. ‘He was huge in the Midwest – Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh. We just couldn’t get him out of there. “

In Cleveland, the story was different, of course. He played several nights at Richfield Coliseum and Blossom Music Center. Mellencamp, Billy Joel, Foreigner and others opened for him early in their careers. The band played at the World Series of Rock at Municipal Stadium. “They sold more shows in Ohio than anyone,” noted Walsh.

Stanley and company also rarely allow anything to get in the way of a good show. Drummer Dobeck remembered a wrench, inadvertently left by a team member who fell from the lighting lattice during a show at the Richfield Coliseum and hit Stanley in the head. “Michael thought someone threw something at him and asked, ‘Who the hell did that ?!’ – which was so different from Michael. But it only lasted about 10 seconds and we went back to the song. “

When stage light exploded outside Detroit and shrapnel cut Stanley’s face in the meantime, Dobeck recalls that “he just kept playing, with blood running down his face. I was like, ‘Wow, what a showman.’ “

The Michael Stanley Band ended in 1986, but Stanley continued to record and play live with his bands Resonators and Midlife Chrysler. His musical reach has expanded and his lyrics have become richer, more experienced and even more cinematic, infusing his songs with the experience and perspective of his years. And he never shied away from a clever phrase or a veteran’s word; Szymczyk laughed as he recalled that Stanley’s songs had made him pull out the dictionary on more than one occasion.

“If you look at the work of any writer, you will usually find one or two themes in common that they have been trying to refine,” Stanley – who suffered a heart attack in 1991 and also struggled with subsequent prostate cancer and a quadruple bypass. – he told The Plain Dealer in 2012.

“I realized that mine is: you never know. This whole idea of ​​never knowing what tomorrow will bring and being open to it. I almost always thought of it in a very positive way: ‘Hey! Tomorrow! Tomorrow is the day when something good will happen! “

Stanley, as it turned out, embarked on a bonus career that few could hope for – despite his father’s legacy. He won 11 local Emmy awards as co-host of WJW Channel 8’s “PM Magazine” from 1987 to 1990, and then spent another year on the “Cleveland Tonight” station. He played himself in an episode of “The Drew Carey Show”.

On the radio, Stanley spent more than 30 years at WNCX on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings, ending last month. He once joked: “I have told each story 107 times”, but being part of the daily life of the city only tied him more to that fabric.

“There is no one who will take your place,” said Bill Louis of WNCX, who has worked with Stanley since 1995. “Hundreds of thousands of Clevelanders loved him on the concert stage, then on PM Magazine and for the past 30 years they have come home with him in his cars every day of the week at WNCX. This body of work will prove to be unique.

“Michael was a very bright light locally that we could call ours.”

Former manager Spero added that “(Stanley) was very approachable. He was involved with all (sports) teams at one point or another. He was the only guy who, if there was a fundraiser, I knew I could always call him and say, ‘You could just come by’ and he would never say no. ‘When you sell Blossom (four) nights in a row, it doesn’t have to be that affordable, but it was.

“So, it’s a huge loss. I didn’t really agree to a life without Michael. “

There will be reminders, of course – the stretch of Huron Avenue renamed to Michael Stanley Way in 2019, for example. And there’s the next “Tough Room”, which Szymczyk said is decidedly agitated, despite Stanley’s poor health. “It’s a lot of rock out. He always has … awakenings and cries. I have always been attracted to alarm clocks … and this one has more agitation than crying. “

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame issued a statement on Saturday, reminding Stanley as “the most beloved musician, composer and rocker in our city.

“His country music resonated with legions of listeners, and his shows set audience records and assumed mythic proportions. Even more importantly, Michael’s songs spoke to our hearts. As fans, we adore and revere him, and in return he loved us back. The energy of his music and his ability to bring people together helped to make Cleveland the World Capital of Rock and Roll and galvanized the community to come together and make our city the home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We will miss Michael very much. “

Stanley leaves his daughters Anna Sary (Christian) and Sarah Sharp (Aaron); his sister, Nancy Oosterhoudt and niece Claire Kloss; his wife, Ilsa Glanzberg and stepson Cole Sweeney; and his five grandchildren – Mallory Sidoti (Mike), Aidan Kraus, Brody Kraus, Wren Sary and Phoebe Sary. He has already died with his mother, Martha Fitzpatrick; his father, Stanley Gee; and his late wife, Denise Skinner.

Stanley will be buried in a private ceremony at Lake View Cemetery. The family requests contributions in memory to the Cleveland Food Bank (www.greaterclevelandfoodbank.org) and / or the Cleveland Animal Protective League (www.clevelandapl.org).