Coroner: Montrose’s death was a suicide

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES

Hard-rock guitarist Ronnie Montrose died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound March 3, according to a report released last Friday by the San Mateo County Coroner’s office. Although he was battling prostate cancer, he did not succumb to that illness, as was previously reported.

Montrose, 64, was a well-known guitarist who recorded with Van Morrison, Boz Scaggs and the Edgar Winter Group before forming his own band, Montrose, with singer Sammy Hagar.

Anticipating the release of the coroner’s report, Montrose’s wife and manager, Leighsa Montrose, gave a revealing interview to Guitar Player in which she detailed the final moments of the guitarist’s life, including an exchange of text messages between the two in which he told his wife: “I have the .38 in my hand and am ready to go.”

Concerned, Leighsa finally asked him to come down to her design studio, where she was working, and he texted back, “I can’t. I’ve got the gun to my head.”

She rushed back to their home in Millbrae, Calif., and according to the Guitar Player story, found him in a recliner in the living room with a .38 revolver in his hand and his cellphone at his feet. Leighsa Montrose reported that the musician had struggled throughout his life with clinical depression and with alcohol.

The coroner’s findings also reported a blood-alcohol level of .31 percent at the time of death, well past the legal limit in the state of California.