R.I.P. Mr. Rontrose Heathman- Supersuckers Guitarist Extraordinaire & Master Barista

„If you don’t like The Supersuckers, you don’t like rock’n’roll“

Lemmy

Ron Heathman of the Supersuckers passed away on August 18th. An obituary by Glen Clarke, with exclusive statements by The Dwarves, New Bomb Turks, and others…
(Photo credit: Jim Hucks)

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Mr. Rontrose Heathman, the man who changed the way we look at life-most baristas wanna become rock stars, Ron was a rock star who became a barista !!!

I was workin’ in a bar called the Sonic Ballroom in Cologne back in 2000, those were the days before streaming and all that shit, when we still listened to cd’s and records.

It was a Sunday night, nothing was happening, and I was bored of listenin’ to the same stuff that I always brought with me, so I had a hoke around in the cd’s that were lying around and I found a burnt CD with “Evil Powers” written on it. I thought, „This sounds cool, I’ll have a listen.“

4 hours, 5 Jack & Cokes and a few vodkas later, I was still listening to it.

Remember, this was a time where the internet was just starting out and you couldn’t just google something and find out what it was. It took me a few days to figure out which band had brought out this absolute classic album. It was, of course, The Supersuckers.

20 years later I still listen to that record on a regular basis, I still have the burnt CD lying around somewhere, but am a proud owner of the album on vinyl and CD… I have learned to love the band, especially their on/off guitarist, the recently late and even more great Mr. Rontrose Heathman !!

„Ron Heathman was a sweet guy and a genuine talent. Whenever I’d start to get negative about something or somebody, Ron steered me back in the direction of the positive. He loved rock & roll and he lived it. I’m going to miss him.“ – Blag Dahlia (The Dwarves)

Thanks to many live shows, DVDs, YouTube etc., I now know who played all my favorite guitar parts on all of those albums, it was Ron !

His riff opens up the Evil Powers of Rock ‘N’ Roll (1999) album and his guitar also ends it. Alongside Dan Bolton, Rontrose turned a great rock’n’roll song into an amazing one; with his Les Paul banged through a classic Orange amp, Ron’s bluesy and heartfelt way to play a rock’n’roll solo helped to birth some of the best Action Rock songs ever written: Pretty Fucked Up, Born With A Tail, Supersuckers Drive By Blues, Hot Like The Sun, Stuff and Nonsense, and Creepy Jackalope Eye, to name but a few.

Mr. Heathman was a founding member of the band back when they were called ‘The Black Supersuckers’, but left after their second album La Mano Cornuda (1994) to be replaced by Rick Sims from Didjits fame. Rick played on one record, The Sacrilicious Sounds of The Supersuckers (1995), and then Ron returned. When asked in an interview what the best thing ever to happen to him was, he replied „Being asked to rejoin The Supersuckers“.

Fans were expecting another seminal high energy rock’n’roll record, but what came was something completely different, something never done before by a rock’n’roll band: Must’ve Been High (1997) was a pure outlaw country album !

Many fans hated it at the time, thinking „What the fuck is this shit?“, but the album has stood the test of time and turned out to be one of the most successful Supersuckers records ever. Ron’s style of bluesy rock guitar playing fitted perfectly on this album. His solo on “Barricade” turned into a fan favorite where the song would stop just before the solo, and Eddie would incite the audience to cheer Ron on like he was Eddie Van Halen or something!

To be honest, if I had the choice between listenin’ to Eddie Van Halen wanking around on his Frankenstrat or Rontrose tearin’ it up on his Les Paul Goldtop, I’d go for Heathman every time !!

Eddie Spagetthi immortalized Ron in the song “My Kick Ass Life” with the words „I´m the man with the Goldtop im my hand“

„Every time I saw that original line up of Supersuckers, I was always up front on Ron’s side of the stage cos I always wanted to hear him louder and watch how he was playing his solos. He was one of those amazing rock guitarists who didn’t overplay anything, he just knew what sounded great and fit the song perfectly but could still tear it up whenever he needed to.” – Austin Smith (The Hip Priests)

After Must’ve Been High, the band returned to their roots and Evil Powers of Rock’N’Roll was born. As I said earlier, it’s one of the best rock records of all time and Ron’s work on it is just unbeatable! I’m not putting down Dan Bolton in any way whatsoever. He is also phenomenal on all the stuff they did together, but this article is about Rontrose, just to clear that up!

Ron played on two more full albums after Evil Powers; Motherfuckers be Trippin (2003), and Get It Together (2008). Two great albums featuring hits like “Pretty Fucked Up“, “Sleepy Vampire“, or “Sunset on a Sunday“

In my opinion, those records didn’t quite live up to Evil Powers, but neither did any Zeppelin record after IV or anything Turbonegro did after Apocalypse Dudes. I guess once you bring out a record as good as the aforementioned you are always gonna live in the shadow of your previous work.

But hey, fuck it, still great albums.

The New Bomb Turks did one of our early tours (94) with The Supersuckers. They were like big brothers to us. We played poker back stage and joked and laughed. Ron was quiet and nice and funny, a super sweet guy who happened to be a sold-my-soul-to-the-devil amazing lead player.
I’m devastated that i’ll never get to talk to him or see him play again“ – Matt Reber (New Bomb Turks)

Ron once again left the band in 2010 to be replaced by “Metal” Marty Chandler who is more than a worthy successor, but hey, he ain’t Rontrose !! I guess he knows how Jake E. Lee felt after having to replace Randy Rhoads- unbelievably good at what he does, a great guy and an awesome musician, but it just ain’t the same.

Rontrose hung up his Les Paul Goldtop after 21 years and made the career leap to a coffee roaster. I loved the way he compared the smell of good coffee to the smell of opening up your guitar case, „Both are awesome, but one is less sweaty! “. Another great quote was „Coffee Roasting is like playing guitar, you gotta learn the rules before you can break them“

In 2007, Ron opened the Satellite Cafe (now Cosmonaut), a small, quiet coffee shop in Tacoma, WA roasting Stumptown Coffee. Ron then moved on to become a master roaster, at one point studying under instructor Dennis (who is currently Bow Truss’s master roaster). In 2010, Ron received his Coffee Quality Institute Q-Certification.

„Ron was a gem of a human being, he was always incredibly kind to me. I watched his progression from being a good guitar player to a completely amazing one. Such a tragic loss, he’ll be missed greatly.“ – Jeff Matz (High on Fire / (Ex) Zeke)

I had the honour and pleasure of meeting Mr. Heathman twice and he was one of the sweetest, down-to-earth guys I ever had the good fortune to meet. Having every reason to be arrogant, he was anything but, always taking the time to talk to fans at a show and appreciated everything they had to say, just a nice guy who loved doing his thing.

A man who loved his coffee and his rock’n’roll, Mr. Rontrose Heathman has inspired many musicians, myself included, to just do what they do and he has also shown us that a career change later in life can be a possibility, from rock star to barista- many have dreamed of doing it the other way around !!

It’s a sad, sad day for coffee and rock’n’roll !!

Thanks for the music Ron, you will always be loved and never forgotten.

by Glen Clarke

(Go Fund Me for Ron’s daughter Ruby: https://www.gofundme.com/f/for-ruby-with-love)