Early years (1972–1983) In 1972, Leonard Haze, Bob Gardner, and Wayne Stitzer formed an unnamed band in Oakland, California, that
jammed only cover tunes when
Dave Meniketti joined that same year as guitar player. Soon after, the band received a call for their first gig, but they needed a name. According to Meniketti and Haze, Haze chose the name of the album that was playing on his turntable at that moment –
Yesterday and Today – a studio album by
the Beatles. The first lineup – which only played covers of songs by other artists – consisted of Haze on drums, Stitzer on piano, Gardner on bass, and Meniketti on lead vocals and lead guitar. After Stitzer quit the group, Gardner switched from bass to rhythm guitar and piano, and Phil Kennemore was brought in to play bass. In 1973, Gardner left the group; he was replaced by Joey Alves in January 1974. This 1974 lineup change was when the band began writing original material. The band continued to tour extensively, building up to headliners while they opened for bands such as
Wild Cherry,
Kiss,
AC/DC, and more. As Meniketti has said in numerous radio, television, and magazine interviews over the past five decades, it was the new record deal ("which took forever" [to secure]) garnering far more mainstream recognition in Europe and Japan than they did in their native United States. and participating in the 1984 edition of
Monsters of Rock at
Donington Park in England, gave Y&T better exposure than they had emjoyed previously. The band's 1985 hit "
Summertime Girls", initially featured as the sole studio track on the band's first live album,
Open Fire, and later also featured on their seventh (studio) album
Down for the Count released later the same year, became the band's highest-charting hit to date, reaching No. 55 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and No. 16 on the
Mainstream Rock songs chart. It received airplay worldwide, played frequently in the
Baywatch television series, featured in several feature films (including
Real Genius), received heavy rotation on
MTV as well as MTV's top video playlists, and continues to get regular airplay today on
classic rock radio stations throughout the United States.
Down for the Count would be the band's last album for A&M, as the band grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of promotion from the label within the US. Despite successful tours with
Mötley Crüe and
Aerosmith, and the chart success of "Summertime Girls", the label declined to release a follow-up single. On his recollection of
Down for the Count, Meniketti said in an interview for Metal Express Radio: ". . . it ended up being a sort of wasted record . . . it was out right when the record company didn't care about us." In present day the band still play tracks from the album in their live shows. In 1986, the band changed record labels to
Geffen, and in that same year, Haze was fired for drug abuse issues (as Haze, band, and management discuss in the documentary "Y&T: On With the Show"), and was replaced by
Jimmy DeGrasso; decades later when interviewed for the documentary
Y&T: On With the Show, Haze said, "I would've fired me, too." In 1987, the eighth album
Contagious was released. In 1989, Alves was fired for drug abuse and was replaced by Stef Burns. (DeGrasso and Burns later played together with
Alice Cooper in the 1990s.) Y&T's next studio album
Ten was released in 1990. The album features ballads such as "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" (the first and only single from the album), "Ten Lovers", and "Come in from the Rain", together with a few straightforward hard rock songs, including "Hard Times", "City", "Surrender", and "Goin' Off the Deep End". According to Meniketti, the video for "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" was probably the best video they ever made, but with the onset of
grunge he never once saw it on
MTV. titled
Facemelter on their own label in the US. It was their first studio album in thirteen years (since 1997's
Endangered Species) and was consequently licensed to the Italian label
Frontiers Records for the rest of the world. In June 2010, Y&T toured the world in support of
Facemelter, performing the big European summer festivals, such as
Sweden Rock,
Download Festival at
Donington Park, UK, and
Hellfest in Clisson, France. During this world tour, bassist Kennemore experienced health issues; that summer, while on the US leg of the 2010 world tour, he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Upon receiving doctor's orders to leave the tour and begin treatment, Kennemore urged Meniketti to find a replacement and continue touring. In July 2010, the group enlisted
Brad Lang, bass player from the band Jet Red, to step in and finish Y&T's tour promoting
Facemelter, as Kennemore wanted the tour to carry on during his fight with cancer. On January 7, 2011, bassist Kennemore died of
lung cancer at the age of 57 after a short illness. Kennemore and Meniketti had been the only constant members of the band since the original 1974 lineup. After Kennemore's untimely passing, Lang filled continued in the bass position. , Netherlands, 2015 On October 19, 2013, in Bellagio, Italy, Stef Burns joined the band onstage for four songs ("Black Tiger", "Dirty Girl", "Midnight In Tokyo", and "Hurricane") in a reunion of sorts since Burns had been busy touring with
Huey Lewis and the News and
Vasco Rossi. This one-time reunion was well received by the fans, as one would expect. In April 2016, Lang left the band to address his alcohol dependency issues; his last show with Y&T was on April 2, 2016, at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Lang's friend Aaron Leigh (
Frank Hannon Band) stepped in, his first show on April 14 at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA. On June 29, 2016, Y&T and Lang announced separately on their own Facebook pages that they had mutually and amicably parted ways, confirming that Leigh would remain as the band's bassist. Original drummer Haze died on September 11, 2016, at the age of 61 after a long battle with
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Original rhythm guitarist Alves died on March 12, 2017, at the age of 63 from ulcerative colitis and inflammatory bowel disease. Alves' death left Meniketti as the last surviving member from the band's original, classic lineup. In January 2018, Y&T released their first-ever acoustic EP titled
Acoustic Classix Vol. 1. In June 2018, Meniketti said that the band might release more acoustic EPs in the future. On November 26, 2019, the fan-backed (on Kickstarter) documentary
On With The Show was released. ==Legacy==