Eric Bloom
Eric Bloom was born in New York City, New York, United States on December 1st, 1944 and is the Guitarist. At the age of 79, Eric Bloom biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 79 years old, Eric Bloom has this physical status:
After college, Bloom toured with the band in upstate New York (he was the only one who had a van to transport equipment). The band had some membership changes and was renamed as Rock Garden. They made one attempt to record a single but could not land a contract, so they continued on with live performances and cover tunes, until the band broke up in July 1967.
Though Bloom had applied and been accepted for graduate school at San Diego State University, he decided instead to spend the Summer of Love of 1967 as a drifter, pan-handling or selling sketches for $1 in Provincetown (P-town), Cape Cod, until he got a job washing dishes. On Labor Day, his college friend Trivers invited him to perform in Clayton, New York the next night. Despite the short notice, Bloom packed up and left Provincetown for good. Lost and Found re-formed and played through the rest of the season.
In 1968, Bloom moved to Plainview, Long Island to live with his sister. He obtained a job at Sam Ash Music in Hempstead, selling music equipment. One day in late 1968 some members of the band Soft White Underbelly, Donald Roeser (later Buck Dharma), Allen Lanier and Andrew Winters, entered the store. One of them spotted a photo that Bloom had put up as a joke—he had placed an 8x10 glossy of his old band Lost and Found up on the wall with all the major bands such as the Rolling Stones and The Who. One of the SWU members recognized it because Les Braunstein, their lead singer, had also been a Hobart College alumnus, and had told his bandmates about the other college band. As Bloom talked with them about the photo, they struck up a friendship. Bloom ended up doing some sound engineering for them at the Electric Circus in Greenwich Village, and they mutually impressed each other enough that in November 1968, the band's manager, Sandy Pearlman, asked if Bloom would like to become their tour manager. Bloom moved into the group's house in Great Neck, New York in December 1968.
In April 1969, when lead singer Braunstein dropped out of the group, Bloom became the band's vocalist. The band went through several name changes, but in 1971 settled on Blue Öyster Cult. Their first album was released by Columbia Records in 1972, and they were voted "Best New Band" by Creem magazine.
In 1976, their platinum album Agents of Fortune with its hit "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" launched the band into international fame, though that particular song was sung and written by lead guitarist Buck Dharma. Both Creem readers and Rolling Stone critics voted "Don't Fear the Reaper" as the top single of the year.
Bloom bought his own house in Great Neck in 1976, where he still resides to this day.
Bloom has been one of the longtime members of the band throughout the decades, along with original member Buck Dharma (it is estimated that they have given over 4,000 live performances). He has co-written many of the band's songs, and often collaborates with writers both inside and outside the music industry. Bloom is credited as playing "stun guitar" on some Blue Öyster Cult works, a term the band uses for the distortion sound of his rhythm guitar.
Bloom is known for being an avid reader, especially science fiction and fantasy novels. He once sent a fan letter to English science-fiction author Michael Moorcock, and then collaborated with him on three songs. "Black Blade" was written from the point of view of Moorcock's Elric character, and the other two were "The Great Sun Jester" and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", the latter of which was used in the original Heavy Metal movie. In 1987, Bloom and Moorcock performed the song live at the Dragon*Con convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bloom also collaborated with author Eric Van Lustbader on the song "Shadow Warrior", and in 1998, 2001 and 2020 with cyberpunk author John Shirley on the Heaven Forbid', Curse of the Hidden Mirror and The Symbol Remains albums.
In 2006, Bloom began a partnership with artist Philippe Renaudin, to create and sell six elaborately painted custom-made guitars, each one of which interprets a different Blue Öyster Cult song, and each of which was played during BÖC performances.