{"id":28213,"date":"2026-03-29T14:39:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=28213"},"modified":"2026-03-29T14:39:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:39:32","slug":"rock-in-peace-ross-the-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=28213","title":{"rendered":"Rock In Peace – Ross The Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ross Friedman<\/strong>\u00a0(January 3, 1954 \u2013 March 26, 2026), also known as\u00a0Ross the Boss<\/strong>, was an American guitarist, known as a founding member of both the\u00a0punk\u00a0band\u00a0the Dictators\u00a0and the\u00a0heavy metal\u00a0band\u00a0Manowar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 9, 2026, Friedman announced that he was diagnosed with\u00a0amyotrophic lateral sclerosis\u00a0(ALS).\u00a0He died of the disease a month later, on March 26, at the age of 72.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Ross was born in\u00a0the Bronx, New York, on January 3, 1954. He formed the\u00a0punk rock\u00a0band\u00a0the Dictators\u00a0with\u00a0Andy Shernoff\u00a0in\u00a0New Paltz, New York, in 1973. Before this, Friedman had played in a local band, Total Crudd. After recording three albums with the Dictators, Friedman went to France and worked for one year in\u00a0Fabienne Shine’s band\u00a0Shakin’ Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\u00a0Black Sabbath’s\u00a0Heaven and Hell<\/em>\u00a0tour in 1980 (on which Shakin’ Street were the support act), Friedman was introduced to bass player\u00a0Joey DeMaio\u00a0by\u00a0Ronnie James Dio. Later in 1980, Friedman and DeMaio formed Manowar, with whom he recorded six albums before DeMaio asked him to leave the band after the 1988 album\u00a0Kings of Metal<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1990, Friedman joined\u00a0Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom\u00a0with fellow Dictators Andy Shernoff and\u00a0Handsome Dick Manitoba. With drummer J. P. Patterson the band released the album\u00a0…And You?<\/em>\u00a0to critical acclaim. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In 1994, Friedman had a blues rock band called “Heyday”, and in 1999, CMC records released the Spinatras album\u00a0@Midnight.com<\/em>, a band whom Friedman described as “The Dictators meet Cheap Trick”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dictators started playing again in 1996, touring heavily. In 2001, with original rhythm guitar player\u00a0Scott Kempner\u00a0now back in the fold, the band released their best effort, the mighty album “D.F.F.D.”, which they then toured to support in the U.S. and Europe. A resulting live album was released from the European tour, entitled “Viva Dictators”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2004, Friedman joined\u00a0Albert Bouchard, the original drummer for\u00a0Blue \u00d6yster Cult, in his band\u00a0Brain Surgeons. He also recorded an instrumental album with Dictators drummer JP Thunderbolt Patterson, called\u00a0imaginatively Thunderboss<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2005, Friedman joined\u00a0Manowar\u00a0onstage at the\u00a0Earthshaker Festival, performing “Metal Daze” and “Dark Avenger” with them. At the end of the concert, he also performed “Battle Hymn” with other past and present members of Manowar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2006, Friedman and The Dictators played Friday and Saturday nights of the closing weekend at punk rock venue\u00a0CBGBs, one of the clubs where they got their start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008, it included an appearance with old sparring partner Handsome Dick Manitoba in Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom at the 2008\u00a0Joey Ramone\u00a0Birthday Bash, performances with Shakin’ Street at the Sweden Rock Festival, and a few tour dates in Spain with The Dictators. He released a new album in August with his German metal band under the name “Ross the Boss” called “New Metal Leader”. The following month, he appeared on\u00a0Inner Demons<\/em>, the second album by the New Jersey metallers Skullshifter, playing lead guitar on the track “Etched in Sand”. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

He recently played in a reimagined lineup of The Dictators without HDM, but released an impressive album that was self-titled. Managed to meet him several times, and he was always very pleasant, polite and courteous even when joking with Manitoba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 18, 2017, Friedman was inducted into the\u00a0Hall of Heavy Metal History\u00a0for his contributions to Speed Metal while in\u00a0Manowar. His musical output was varied to say the least, but leaves behind classics from The Dictators and Metal titans Manowar. Rock in peace, Mr Boss. The world is a quieter place without you in it. Go play a Dictators record or ‘All Men Play On Ten’ and remember Ross The Fuckin’ Boss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Friedman\u00a0(January 3, 1954 \u2013 March 26, 2026), also known as\u00a0Ross the Boss, was an American guitarist, known as a founding member of both the\u00a0punk\u00a0band\u00a0the Dictators\u00a0and the\u00a0heavy metal\u00a0band\u00a0Manowar. On February 9, 2026, Friedman announced that he was diagnosed with\u00a0amyotrophic lateral sclerosis\u00a0(ALS).\u00a0He died of the disease a month later, on March 26, at the age of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[4523,3956],"class_list":["post-28213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-manowar","tag-the-dictators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28219,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28213\/revisions\/28219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}