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 Tommy Bolin - Calvary Cemetery - Sioux City, IA
N 42° 31.296 W 096° 26.543
14T E 710082 N 4710861
Guitarist Tommy Bolin is buried with his parents and a brother in Calvary Cemetery, Sioux City, IA. Besides working as a session and solo musician, he is best known for his work as a member of Zephyr, the James Gang, and Deep Purple.
Waymark Code: WM12J2X
Location: Iowa, United States
Date Posted: 06/02/2020
Views: 1
Mr. Bolin is buried with his parents, Richard (1919-1992) and Barbara Jean (1924-1994), and a brother, Richard (1957-1994) near the northeast end of the Golgotha section. His final resting place is marked by a flat, bronze headstone with a vase. Maple leaves are used as detail, and there is a small cross on the right, inside of which is "With God all things are possible". As a nod to his profession, a guitar is between his birth and death dates, 1951 and 1976. The inscription reads:
Tommy R. Bolin
Beloved Son and Brother
As of this posting, note the small rocks and coins left by visitors. There is nothing disrespectful (which I would have taken with me to a nearby trash can), although the male end of a car cigarette lighter is a head-scratcher. I had to remove the flowers from the vase in order to get a good photo of the headstone, and everything was put back to how I found it, as I take only photos and leave only footprints. A bandanna is wrapped around the vase, and covered by the flowers were a couple of feathers: Tommy Bolin often wore feathered earrings while performing. There was also an interesting glass globe, and a piece of a guitar neck, most likely not his but from a fan.
Description:
Thomas Richard Bolin was born in Sioux City, IA in 1951, and by the age of 13, was already a guitarist in a band, A Patch of Blue. After relocating to Boulder, CO while still in his teens, Bolin joined what was to become Zephyr, establishing himself as a talented and flashy guitarist. After recording two albums with Zephyr, Bolin moved on, forming a fusion band, Energy, but the band was unable to get a contract.
Bolin then took some time off to write songs before reality and his financial situation beckoned and he took the guitarist position with the James Gang in 1973 to record two albums with them before moving on once again. He had begun to do session work, and his work on Billy Cobham's "Spectrum" caught the ear of his peers, including David Coverdale of Deep Purple.
While working on his first solo album, "Teaser", Bolin was contacted by Deep Purple, who had just lost their guitarist and founding member, Ritchie Blackmore. For years, the story had been that Blackmore recommended Bolin as he left the group, but the reality appears to be that Coverdale's interest in Bolin's work on "Spectrum" is what brought Bolin in for a jam session. He was a good fit, but in retrospect, the groundwork was being put into place for trouble: Bolin had already been a replacement for Joe Walsh and Dominic Troiano in the James Gang, and now, his solo career was interrupted by his being another replacement with Deep Purple. While his single studio album with the band is generally regarded as a worthy effort, the tour that followed was anything but, marred by taunts of "Where's Ritchie?" from fans (making him miserable by being second fiddle once again), a disastrous stay in Indonesia where a crew member was killed and the band barely was able to leave the country, and Bolin's own growing dependence upon heroin. Bolin was also unable to support his own effort, "Teaser", but one concession was his performing one of its tracks, "Wild Dogs", during Deep Purple shows. During the first leg of the tour, Bolin passed out one night and fell asleep on his left arm for eight hours, practically rendering him unable to play, which was captured for "Last Concert in Japan." He did manage to recover, but by the end of the second leg of the tour, founding Purple members Jon Lord and Ian Paice had decided to end the group, with substance abuse by Bolin and bassist-vocalist Glenn Hughes playing a significant role.
Bolin returned with his own band and recorded another album, "Private Eyes". Now artistically free to support that album, he toured with Peter Frampton and Jeff Beck. Just hours after a successful performance and having been interviewed and photographed with Beck, Bolin lost his battle with substances and was found dead in his Miami hotel room. He had overdosed on a fatal cocktail of heroin, alcohol, cocaine and barbiturates, and was brought back to Sioux City for burial here.
While Tommy Bolin didn't live to see real success, his memory lives on, with a good number of releases of archival material, live performances, and even tributes that honor his influence as a guitarist.
Date of birth: 08/01/1951
Date of death: 12/04/1976
Area of notoriety: Entertainment
Marker Type: Horizontal Marker
Setting: Outdoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Daily, 8 AM to 9 PM
Fee required?: No
Web site: [Web Link]
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