George Kooymans, guitarist and co-founder of the Dutch rockers Golden Earring, has died. He was 77.
Kooymans’ family confirmed his death to the Dutch outlet AD, saying the musician died from the effects of ALS, which he was diagnosed with in 2020. “We say goodbye to a great musician and composer whose work reached far beyond Golden Earring. George was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, but above all, a friend,” the family said.
Golden Earring drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk added, “What we want now is silence and to remember everything he did. I played with him for 50 years, and that was the best time of my life. I’ll leave it at that for now.”
Golden Earring spent more than five decades together, enjoying massive success in their home country and achieving international renown with tracks like 1973’s “Radar Love,” 1982’s “Twilight Zone,” and 1984’s “When the Lady Smiles.” While “Twilight Zone” was the group’s highest-charting song in the U.S., peaking at Number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, their epic, multi-faceted opus “Radar Love” (which peaked at Number 13) remains Golden Earring’s most enduring hit and a staple of classic rock radio. (It also landed at Number Three on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 50 Best Road Trip Songs.)
“This song was responsible for 80 percent of U.S. speeding tickets in 1974. (The rest were caused by ‘Takin’ Care of Business.’),” Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield wrote of “Radar Love” while praising Golden Earring’s 1974 album Moontan. “It remains one of the all-time coolest driving songs, with hypnotic bass and white-line fever poetry. ‘I’ve been driving all night, my hands wet on the wheel’ — now there’s an opening line.”
Kooymans and his childhood friend Rinus Gerritsen co-founded Golden Earring in the early Sixties, while still teenagers growing up in The Hague, Netherlands. (They were first known as the Tornados before changing their name.) The group released their debut album, Just Ear-rings, in 1965 and quickly cracked the Dutch singles charts with songs like “Please Go” and “That Day.”
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Golden Earring remained consistently active over the next 50 years, releasing would be their final albums, Tits ‘n Ass, in 2012 (it went to Number One on the Dutch album charts). After that, they dropped one additional EP, The Hague, in 2015, and a final single, “Say When,” in 2019.
At the end of 2020, Kooymans told his bandmates that he’d been diagnosed with ALS, scuttling their hopes for a proper farewell tour. As it stands, the surviving members of Golden Earring will perform one last show in January 2026, with additional musicians filling in and proceeds set to be donated to ALS research.
