RIP Jeremy Russell (of Blue Cheer)

Jeremy B. Russell, who co-founded the heavy metal San Francisco rock band Blue Cheer at the height of the Haight-Ashbury era, died at his Arizona home Tuesday of complications from blood and liver diseases. He was 60.

Mr. Russell, who was known as Jerry, was born on Aug. 31, 1944, in New York, but his family moved to San Francisco when he was a youngster. On his father's side, Mr. Russell was descended from the Harriman railroad family and California's Crocker banking clan, according to his brother, Marin County photographer Ethan Russell.

In 1965, after a stint in the National Guard, Mr. Russell and his close friend Eric Albronda, both music aficionados, decided to form a rock band. The result was Blue Cheer, whose heyday was the latter half of the 1960s, when they were known as a premier heavy metal band from San Francisco.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Russell moved to London, where he worked for several music studios, and then returned to the United States a few years later, settling in Carmel Valley, where he worked on the family's sprawling thoroughbred horse-breeding Double H ranch, which had been built by Mr. Russell's grandfather. The ranch eventually was taken over by Mr. Russell's father, Charles H. Russell, but was sold in 1981, after Charles Russell died.

Soon after, Mr. Russell, who had been suffering from alcohol and drug abuse problems, moved to Arizona, where he met and married his wife, Anne. Ethan Russell said it was Anne who managed to get Mr. Russell off drugs and alcohol, and Mr. Russell later worked as a bartender and maitre d'hotel at the Arizona Inn.

In addition to brother Ethan of San Anselmo, and his wife, Anne, of Tucson, Mr. Russell is survived by another brother, Adam Russell of Minnesota, and a sister, Linda Matson of Carmel Valley.

The family suggests donations to a fund for recovering addicts called First Step, c/o Sonja Stupel, 4110 W. Sweetwater Dr., Tucson AZ 85745.

A memorial service for Mr. Russell will be held at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Arizona Inn, 2200 E. Elm St., Tucson.