Denny Daniels, R.I.P.

Dennis “Denny” Daniels, 60, a longtime member of local R&B outfit DeLuxury and occasional backing musician, died on June 15th in Naperville.

Daniels, who was born with the last name Skicewicz in Northlake, battled a number of maladies in his lifetime but always chased his musical dreams. Severely burned in a fire while in his 20s, he instituted keyboard playing into his physical therapy to keep his scar tissue from hardening.

An ex-wife told the Chicago Tribune and Daily Herald he had backed The Beach Boys, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bo Diddley, Buddy Rich, Muddy Waters, and Paul Shaffer early on, and spent portions of the ’80s and ’90s with DeLuxury. Daniels also booked the Race Mill Inn in Geneva, serving as its house pianist on Saturday nights. He wrote and recorded two albums of classical material, but an advanced form of dementia related to Alzheimer’s rapidly took hold of him beginning in 2003, and he never really recovered.

Anyone interested in Daniels’ music can visit [1] www.fairwayrecords.com.

– Steve Forstneger