Vanilla Fudge Pay A Final Tribute To Tim Bogert

Members of Vanilla Fudge paid tribute to their late co-founder Tim Bogert at a private event in New Jersey this week.

Vanilla Fudge bass player Tim Bogert died from cancer on 13 January 2021.

Vanilla Fudge’s Carmine Appice tells Noise11.com, “We went to New Jersey where Tim’s wife flew in from California with some of Tim’s ashes. He wanted to be sprinkled on his parent’s graves. We had Vinny from The Fudge and Pete from The Fudge and our friend Joey, he is the Pete Best of Vanilla Fudge. He was in the band before me. We made it big and now he is a Pastor. He came down and said some words out of the bible. We had a bunch of Tim’s family there and then we sang ‘People Get Ready’ on an acoustic guitar. It was a nice tribute to Tim”.

Guitarist Billy Sheehan had an idea for a tribute. “Billy offered to do a tribute to Tim and play with Vanilla Fudge and I said let’s do a tribute to Tim and get a bunch of people,” Carmine said. “I talked to Jorgen Carlsson from Gov’t Mule and we’ll try and get Warren Haynes and Joe Bonamassa. We are going to try and put together a whole bunch of people for Tim and give Cancer research whatever profits the gigs make in Tim’s name”.

Not long perform Tim passed, Vanilla Fudge got together to record one final song. ‘Stop In The Name of Love’ is a Supremes song making a bookend to their biggest hit, also a Supremes cover, ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’, from over 50 years ago. “We are the only band from 1967 that has released a new product with all original members, said Carmine. “Think about it. The guys who were big then, Hendrix… they’ve all gone. Cream, two guys have gone. Janis Joplin of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jim Morrison of the Doors gone. Two Beatles gone. Stones have three gone. We were the only ones who could put out a record with all of us. We almost missed Tim but we got him. As soon as we put him on there it was magic”.

Tim was very ill when the final song was recorded. “He was stage 4 cancer. His wife brought him down to the studio. Jorgen of Govt Mule lived about 20 minutes from Tim. He has a studio there. We asked if it was okay to bring Tim in to do bass. Tim was so sick. He showed up in his pyjamas. He never went out of the house. He had stage 4 cancer in his brain and his lungs. As soon as we put him on the track it just locked together”.