Leonard Haze

Y&T
Y&T in 2016
Background information
Origin	Oakland, California, U.S.
Genres	Heavy metal, hard rock, glam metal
Years active	1974–present
Labels	London, A&M, Universal, Geffen, Metal Blade, Avex, Hip-O, Frontiers
Website	Official website
Members	Dave Meniketti John Nymann Mike Vanderhule Aaron Leigh
Past members	Leonard Haze Phil Kennemore Joey Alves Jimmy DeGrasso Stef Burns Brad Lang

Y&T (originally known as Yesterday & Today) is an American hard rock/heavy metal band formed in 1974. They hail from Oakland, California. The band released two studio albums on London Records as Yesterday & Today in the 1970s, before shortening their name to Y&T and releasing several albums on A&M Records beginning in 1981, as well as albums on Geffen Records, Avex Records, and others. The band was originally co-managed by Herbie Herbert (who also managed Journey) and Louis "Lou" Bramy. The band has sold over 4 million albums worldwide to date.

Leonard Haze, Bob Gardner, and Wayne Stitzer had an unnamed band in Hayward, CA that played only cover tunes. Dave Meniketti joined as guitar player in 1972. Soon after, the band received a call for their first gig, but they needed a name. According to Meniketti and Haze, Leonard chose the name of the album that was playing on his turntable at that moment – Yesterday and Today – a compilation from The Beatles. The first lineup – which only played covers of songs by other artists – consisted of Haze on drums, Stitzer on piano, Gardner on bass, and Meniketti on lead vocals and lead guitar. After Stitzer quit the group, Gardner switched from bass to rhythm guitar and piano, and Phil Kennemore was brought in to play bass. In 1974, Gardner left the group and was replaced by Joey Alves. After this lineup change, the band began writing original material.

The band released their first two studio albums, their self-titled debut and Struck Down, through London Records in 1976 and 1978 respectively. They toured extensively, mainly as an opening act for bands such as Wild Cherry. As Dave Meniketti has said in numerous radio, television, and magazine interviews over the past four decades, that a new record deal in 1980 with A&M Records prompted the band to shorten their moniker to simply Y&T, as influenced by their encores where fans would chant "Y&T, Y&T, Y&T."

...
Wikipedia