Alice Cooper Guitarist Mike Pinera Dead at 76

Mike Pinera, who fronted the rock band Blues Image and also played as Alice Cooper’s guitarist, has died. Pinera passed away at his home in Tampa, Florida on Wednesday, Nov. 20 after a long illness, local news outlet the St. Pete Catalyst confirmed. He was 76.

Although Pinera’s cause of death was not confirmed, Best Classic Bands reported he died of liver failure. The guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer had suffered health setbacks in recent months, with his former band Blues Image revealing in January that he had been hospitalized. A GoFundMe page had also been created after Pinera suffered “some very serious life threatening medical conditions.”

Born in Tampa in 1948, Pinera got his start in the music industry in the ‘60s. After being part of teen garage bands like the Impalas, the Motions, and the El Dorados, Pinera formed the group Blues Image with singer-drummer Manuel “Manny” Bertematti, singer-percussionist Joe Lala, keyboardist Emilio Garcia, and bassist Malcolm Jones. Adding Latin rhythms to their heavy rock sound, the band gained attention for their unique sound.

“People felt that there was a higher reality which we were all part of but couldn’t quite get there on our own. So they looked to psychedelic rock, meditation, Eastern music and alternative lifestyles to expand their consciousness [and] accommodate the vast realms they began to discover,” Pinera said of the group in a 2014 interview. “In Blues Image, Manny Bertematti and I began learning meditation techniques, vegetarian diets, fasting and treating everyone we met like they were our family. … We discovered dimensions of well-being that had us glowing from head to toe. Our music expressed levels of spontaneity that had us playing the very same thing together at the same – without knowing how or why!”

In addition to opening Tampa’s first “psychedelic” nightclub, Dino’s, Blues Image also opened for bands like Cream, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, the Yardbirds, and Led Zeppelin. The group released three albums – Blues Image (1969), Open (1970), and Red White & Blues Image (1970) – and scored their biggest hit with “Ride Captain Ride.”

After the group split, Pinera joined Iron Butterfly, appearing on the group’s 1970 album Metemorphosis. He later went on to play as the lead guitarist for Alice Cooper from 1980 to 1982, playing guitar on the, Special Forces (1981) and Zipper Catches Skin (1982) were released. Throughout his career, Pinera also formed the bands Ramatam with Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the New Cactus Band and Thee Image.