George Kooymans, co-founder of and guitarist for the band Golden Earring, has died. He was 77.
Kooymans’ family announced his death in the
Dutch news outlet AD
, saying he died from complications due to ALS.
“We say goodbye to a great musician and composer whose work extended beyond Golden Earring,” the family said in a statement,
per Rolling Stone
. “George was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, but above all, a friend.”
“What we want now is silence and to remember everything he did,” Golden Earring drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk also said. “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
broke up in 2021
, after Kooymans was first diagnosed with ALS.
“It’s a very bad prognosis and I’m not really in the mood to say much about it,” he said at the time. “I am being treated at the university hospital in Leuven. That’s it. It’s a progressive disease. Unfortunately, performing is no longer possible.”
Born in the Netherlands in 1948, Kooymans co-founded Golden Earring — initially known as The Tornados — in 1961. The band achieved international fame with such songs as “Radar Love” in 1973, “Twilight Zone” in 1982, and “When the Lady Smiles” in 1984.
“Twilight Zone” was the group’s best-charting song, hitting number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 list, although “Radar Love” remains a classic rock staple.
The band was active for over 50 years and continued to have hit albums in their native country into the 2010s. The surviving members plant to hold a final show in January 2026 with the proceeds going towards ALS research.
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