Referred to as the “King of the Surf Guitar,” Dick Dale died on Saturday, March 16th at age 81. Dale was touring through the end in order to save his life. “I can’t stop touring because I will die. Physically and literally, I will die,” he told the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2015. “Sure, I’d love to stay home and build ships in a bottle and spend time with my wife in Hawaii, but I have to perform to save my life.”
Dale was born Richard Anthony Monsour in Boston, Mass. in 1937, and first came to prominence in the early ’60s with his band, the Del-Tones, and “Miserlou.” He endured a huge comeback in 1994 on the success of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack and the use of “The use of “Misirlou.” Check out Dale’s version of “Ghost Riders in the Sky”…
