Larry Burnett

Larry Burnett is a Virginia-based singer/songwriter/guitarist who was one of the original members of the pop-rock group Firefall.

Larry Burnett was born on November 8, 1951 and wrote his first song when he was sixteen. Prior to joining Firefall, Larry was a professional cab driver in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, while occasionally performing at the city's legendary Cellar Door nightclub. It was there that Burnett first met Firefall founder Rick Roberts. In August 1974, Roberts asked Burnett to join the band and sent Burnett a one-way plane ticket to Boulder, Colorado. The band, including Burnett, singer/guitarist Roberts, Mark Andes (bass,) Michael Clark (drums,) and Jock Bartley (guitar,) developed a pop-rock-midwest country sound, in the tradition of Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Byrds and the Eagles' early recordings.

After over a year of writing, rehearsing and performing throughout Colorado, Firefall began recording their eponymous debut album for Atlantic Records which would be released in 1976. Success came quickly for the Firefall, touring with such acts as The Band, Doobie Brothers and Fleetwood Mac, "Firefall" became Atlantic's fastest album to sell 500,000 copies. Larry would sing and play guitar on Firefall's first five albums including their self-titled 1976 debut, the follow-up "Luna Sea" (1977,) and subsequent "Elan" (1978,) "Undertow" (1979) and "Clouds Across the Sun" (1980). His songwriting credits for the band include "Piece of Paper", "Love isn't All", "Wrong Side of Town" and "Cinderella", which charted at #34 on Billboard in 1977.

Larry left Firefall in April 1981 while the band was on tour. His struggle with drugs began when he was sixteen and with Firefall's success, he was able to further fuel his addiction. But the non-stop recording and touring coupled with increasing drug use began taking a physical toll on Burnett. According to Burnett's website, "I began to believe I would die if I stayed with this one more day. The band got up one morning after a show in Orlando FL, headed to the airport and got on a plane for Nevada. I got on one for Washington DC (my home) and checked myself into a psychiatric hospital's drug rehab unit." Burnett's battle to end his drug addiction lasted four years. His last drink and drug was August 1985.

In 1995, Brother Phelps, formerly of Kentucky Headhunters, covered Burnett's composition, "Cinderella," on their second CD, "Any Way the Wind Blows." In 2010, The Burnett-penned "Learn the Dance" was covered by singer songwriter JD Pederson on Pederson's third CD, "It Seems Like Only Yesterday."

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