Having been a member of The Igniters, The Silencers, Iron City Houserockers and Red Hot & Blue, among many others, drummer Ron "Byrd" Foster may have played in more prominent Pittsburgh bands than any other local musician.



Ron Foster was a 17-year-old student at Seneca Valley High School when he first hit the road with a band. He had answered an ad for a group called Michael G and the Eruptions whose drummer couldn't go to Wildwood, N.J., for the summer.



Through the Eruptions, Ron met Pittsburgh singer Frank Czuri, a member of late '60s blues-rock outfit The Igniters, which was briefly signed to Atlantic with the new name Jimmy Mack and the Music Factory. Czuri recalls: "When Ron Foster came back after that summer in New Jersey, we were looking for a new drummer and he fit perfectly."



It was during the Igniters era that Ron Foster got his nickname, from band member Rob Abberzizzi, who commented one morning when the drummer woke up that with his hair sticking straight up, he looked just like a baby bird.



Ron's wife, Carrie Smooke-Foster, originally of Stanton Heights, said that at some point, Ron asked, "Can we drop the 'Baby' part?"



After the Igniters split, Ron Foster moved on to other bands, including Sweet Lightnin' with Pete Hewlett, and stint as drummer and vocalist for the late blues guitar great Roy Buchanan.



In 1979, Czuri and local guitar hero Warren King, both of Diamond Reo, approached Ron Foster to join their new band The Silencers.



The band recorded two albums for Precision/CBS and its video for the medley "Peter Gunn/Remote Control/Illegal" aired on MTV the day the network debuted in 1981.



When The Silencers began to splinter a few years later, Warren King and Ron Foster went back to their bluesier roots in Red Hot & Blue and Mystic Knights of the Sea. The drummer was a member of the Iron City Houserockers for that band's swansong, 'Cracking Under Pressure,' in 1983.



Ron played in cover group Extension 8 in 1984-85.



In 1991, Ron "Byrd" Foster relocated to Orlando to join King as a session player at Kingsnake Recording Studio. In Florida, he worked on albums by a number of Alligator Records artists, including Kenny Neal. He and King also played in a popular Florida club band called Midnight Creepers.



In 2004, Ron was diagnosed with cirrhosis, adding to a number of health problems, including diabetes. In May, he was told he had cancer.



Ron "Byrd" Foster played his last gig in January 2011, backing Georgia guitarist Eric Culberson. He died of liver cancer on Thursday, June 30, 2011, at 61 in Deltona, Florida.