NH People

February 13. 2013 10:18PM

Brad Delp

Bradley Delp, the beloved lead singer of the seventies rock and roll band Boston passed away on March 9, 2007 at his home in Atkinson, New Hampshire. But his low-key musical legacy will surely outlive the man.
Delp was born in Danvers, Massachusetts on June 12, 1951. He picked up a guitar at age 13, after seeing the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. His brush with the Beatles would lead him to form the Beatles-tribute band Beatlejuice during his off-time from the band Boston. He was a lifelong Bealtes fan.
In 1969, Delp performed in Tom Scholz' band Mother's Milk with guitarist Barry Goudreau and drummer Jim Masdea. Goudreau had introduced Brad to guitarist/keyboardist and recent MIT graduate Tom Scholz, who was looking for a singer to complete a recording of some demos that he had made in his basement. At the time, the band making the demos was made up of Scholz, Delp, and Masdea. The demos eventually became the basis for the music known as Boston. They sent the tapes off to Epic Records, who signed Brad Delp and Tom Scholz in 1976. That same year, the self-titled album, Boston, became the best-selling debut album in history. It sold 17 million records and produced some of the greatest rock standards of all time, including "More Than a Feeling" and "Peace of Mind".
Their next album, Don't Look Back was released two years later. A battle with the record company would stall any further albums until 1986, when the band released Third Stage with several new members in tow. The two original founding members, Brad and Tom, remained. In support of the album, a huge tour followed.
Another break between albums forced Delp to part ways with Scholz in 1991 to form a new band called RTZ, but the two would reunite in 1994 to prepare for another major Boston tour. He continued to record vocals on several albums, including Lisa Guyer's Gypsy Girl and some new music Boston's 1997 Greatest Hits album as well as their 2002 Corporate America album.
Though famously known for his "golden" voice, Brad Delp also played guitar, harmonica, and keyboards and wrote or co-wrote several songs for Boston and many other artists.