Offenbach guitarist John McGale died in a car accident in Lacolle, Montérégie, over the weekend.
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The 66-year-old Ontario musician succumbed to his injuries after a swerve that occurred around 2:45 a.m. on the climb in Odelltown. His car went off the road and crashed into a tree before catching fire, the Sûreté du Québec said.
Offenbach producer Stéphane Daoust confirmed to the agency QMI that John McGale was actually the driver who died in the accident.
“He’s a super talented musician, but most of all he was a good person. Someone we could relate to and have good conversations with,” recalled Mr Daoust, who looked to John McGale as his mentor.
Archive / Le Journal de Montréal / Le Journal de Québec
The guitarist was the last surviving original Offenbach member. His death upsets the plans of the current group, said the producer, who was friends with McGale for over 20 years.
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“We released the album Traversion, originally released in 1978, which was reissued on CD and vinyl a few years later. We went on a promotional tour for that. It brings grief to many people, many musicians who have rubbed shoulders with it. It will be a change for many. If you can’t say hello to John, play with him,” he said.
Offenbach not only loses its last founding member, but also a fervent supporter of the group. “He kept Offenbach alive. […] “He loved the group and when he took over the reins he was one of the few who never resigned,” said Stéphane Daoust.
McGale joined Offenbach in late 1978, almost at the same time as vocalist and bassist Breen LeBoeuf, after several band members left him. He gradually established himself as a composer and helped write ‘Rock Bottom’, the group’s second English-language album, although his success has remained discreet.
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Gradually, the guitar enthusiast – he owned more than 300 – established himself as Offenbach’s lead composer around the turn of the 1970s and early 1980s, almost a decade after the band’s formation in Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu. McGale notably composed the music for five of the ten songs on the album Coup de éclair (1981) and eight of the ten songs on the album Tonnedebrick (1983).
Above all, John McGale is behind great successes such as “Only an adventure”, “I know it Ben”, “The wild cat”, “Zimbabwe” or “Woman who goes away”.
Despite the success, the group gradually broke up, while Gerry Boulet distanced himself and released his first solo album in 1984. Offenbach’s last original album, Rockorama, was released in 1985.
After the cult band broke up, John McGale worked with many artists including Nanette Workman, Dan Bigras, Lulu Hughes, Michel Rivard, Marie Carmen, Isabelle Boulay, Éric Lapointe, Steve Hill, France D’Amour and Martin Deschamps.
He was also responsible for the artistic direction of the album “Nature”, on which Martin Deschamps covered Offenbach’s greatest hits, and took over the direction of the tribute album “Les Jalouses du Blues”.
Despite everything, the musician has remained connected to the group that made him famous. So he returned to the stage with Offenbach in the early 2000s, chaining the shows together while the faces of the group around him changed regularly.
– with information from Frédérique De Simone