ALS. Sadly, his last outing, to go see a film with his daughter and granddaughter in a town near his home in Belgium, did not go as planned. The theater was on an upper floor and the elevator was broken, had been for some time, couldn't be repaired, so they'll be replacing it completely late this month...but their website said the theater was accessible. Worse, some of the staff actually laughed about the situation, according to what his daughter told a Belgian newspaper for a story I read this morning. https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20241001_93269206
George has been dealing with ALS as well as possible, even finished two albums with groups he was in besides Golden Earring, since that diagnosis.
Long thread in the Lounge about how he's been doing and more of the artists he's worked with: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181674319
His three former bandmates are still active as musicians, but they were not going to continue as Golden Earring without him, and the three never perform together. You can find threads on some of what they've been doing if you search MA for one of their names - Hay (Barry Hay's last name works better for that search) and Rinus (Gerritsen) and Cesar (Zuiderwijk).
And I think George Kooymans' last name will turn up some threads that don't turn up in a search for earring, including the threads on Vreemde Kostgangers (Strange Boarders, a Dutch way of saying "it takes all kinds" - this was a supergroup trio he was in with two other famous Dutch musicians, a folk singer and a pop star).
He was basically the founder of Golden Earring. It's usually said that George and Rinus founded it, but that was after George, only 13 then, taught Rinus to play guitar. He wrote their early hits, quite a few hits in the Netherlands, and sang lead on most of them, before he started cowriting songs with Barry (with Barry, whose first language was English, writing the lyrics) and they had their biggest hit with Radar Love. Twilight Zone was another solo composition, though; George had originally planned to use it for a solo album.
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