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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Nokie Edwards best known as lead-guitarist of The Ventures passed away today at the age of 82. From theventures.com: We have been advised this morning that Nokie Edwards passed away today after several months battling an infection after hip surgery this past December. The Ventures family feels this loss very deeply: Nokie has been part of the Ventures’ history for almost 6 decades and helped to shape the early Ventures’ sound and the success of their career. He was an innovator and one of the greats on guitar, so much so that he...

P.F. Sloan, composer of major hits by Johnny Rivers ("Secret Agent Man") and Barry McGuire ("Eve of Destruction") died Nov. 15 at his home in Los Angeles. The singer, songwriter and guitarist performed Oct. 2 at the New Orleans roots-music festival the Ponderosa Stomp. Sloan, 70, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer several weeks before his death, his publicist reported Monday. In addition to being the composer of songs recorded by Rivers, McGuire, The Turtles, The Grass Roots, Herman's Hermits, The Fifth Dimension, The Searchers and others, Sloan played for hundreds of recording sessions. He created the classic guitar intro, for...

Bob Bogle, lead guitarist and co-founder of the rock band The Ventures, known for 1960s instrumental hits including "Walk, Don't Run," has died at age 75. Don Wilson, the band's other co-founder, told The News Tribune of Tacoma that Bogle became ill over the weekend and died Sunday. The band sold millions of albums and heavily influenced other rock guitarists. It was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. The hall's Web site hailed The Ventures as "the most successful instrumental combo in rock and roll history." "Walk, Don't Run" reached No. 2 on the Billboard...

Dean Remembers Jan Torrence pays tribute to his late surf-rock mate Best friends "He was driven," says Dean Torrence of singer, songwriter and producer Jan Berry -- his best friend and the other half of the best-selling surf-rock and hot-rod-pop duo Jan and Dean. "He always knew what he wanted to do and how to go about doing it. And he didn't wait around for someone else to tell him it should be done differently. Luckily for him, most of the time it turned out." The tragic exception came on the morning of April 12, 1966, when Berry -- at...

<p>SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The year 1954 was full of pop culture benchmarks. Elvis Presley recorded his first single, the Miss America pageant was televised for the first time, Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.</p>