George Kooymans, co-founder, guitarist, and vocalist for the Dutch rock band Golden Earring, died on Wednesday. He was 77.<\/p>\n
The news of the musician\u2019s passing was confirmed to the Dutch outlet, AD<\/a>, where Kooymans\u2019s loved ones confirmed he died from the aftereffects of ALS<\/a> (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Kooymans was first diagnosed with the rare progressive disease back in 2020. \u201cWe say goodbye to a great musician and composer whose work extended beyond Golden Earring,\u201d a rep for the band said in a statement. \u201cGeorge was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, but above all, a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n As per the AD, director of the ALS Netherlands Foundation, Limore Noach also noted, \u201cOur thoughts are with his family, friends, and the other band members, and we wish them much strength. When it became known that George Kooymans had ALS and could no longer perform, it was heartwarming to see how the whole of the Netherlands rallied in support.\u201d<\/p>\n George Jan Kooymans was born on March 11, 1948. The musician, along with his then-neighbor and bassist, Rinus Gerritsen, formed Golden Earring in 1961. The rock group would go on and score 30 top-ten singles on the Dutch charts throughout their career, including their best known song \u201cRadar Love.\u201d Their biggest U.S. hit, \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d (1982), would reach number 10 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 chart. Golden Earring\u2019s final show was in November 2019. The band officially called it quits when Kooymans\u2019 ALS diagnosis was made public in 2021. <\/p>\n The surviving members of Golden Earring are planning a farewell benefit show set for January 30, 2026, in Rotterdam. The show in honor of Kooymans\u2019 memory will feature a lineup of guest musicians and raise funds for ALS research.<\/p>\n Related coverage:<\/b><\/p>\n Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Murjani Rawls may be reached at mrawls@njadvancemedia.com<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Kooymans, co-founder, guitarist, and vocalist for the Dutch rock band Golden Earring, died on Wednesday. He was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,54075,60109,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-90296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-one-person","11":"tag-redmar18d","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114911674675404051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}