{"id":289594,"date":"2026-02-10T00:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289594\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T00:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:32:07","slug":"manowars-ross-the-boss-friedman-diagnosed-with-als","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289594\/","title":{"rendered":"Manowar’s Ross ‘the Boss’ Friedman Diagnosed With ALS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPunk and metal great Ross \u201cthe Boss\u201d Friedman has been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS<\/a>), commonly known as Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

\n\tFriedman, co-founder of the Dictators and Manowar, revealed the diagnosis Monday, Feb. 9. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to know what lies ahead,\u201d he said, \u201cand it crushes me not to be able to play guitar, but the outpouring of love has been so, so strong. I\u2019m absolutely blown away by the love and support from family, friends and fans. I love you all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to an accompanying statement, Friedman was diagnosed after several months of \u201cseemingly unrelated symptoms,\u201d such as weakness in his hands and legs. Originally, Friedman thought these had been caused by a \u201cseries of very minor strokes,\u201d but \u201cchanges in diet, exercise and added physical therapy did nothing to slow the progression or increase his strength.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFriedman, born in the Bronx, cut his teeth in the very early days of New York\u2019s punk scene, co-founding the Dictators in 1973 with his friends Andy Shernoff and Scott Kempner. During their original run, the group released a trio of albums, most notably 1977\u2019s Manifest Destiny, which managed to crack the Billboard 200 Albums chart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tFor his next act, Friedman and bassist Joey DeMaio co-founded the heavy metal band Manowar, who embraced the slogan, \u201cDeath to false metal\u201d and once set a Guinness World Record for the loudest band in the world. Friedman played with Manowar throughout the Eighties, during which they released six records, including 1984\u2019s Hail to England, which landed at Number 87 on Rolling Stone\u2019s list of the 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Manowar, Friedman played in a variety of groups, including his own outfit, Ross the Boss Band. He also worked with the French group Shakin\u2019 Street, as well as Death Dealer, the Spinatras, and the Brain Surgeons. He was inducted into the Metal Hall of Fame in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Punk and metal great Ross \u201cthe Boss\u201d Friedman has been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), commonly known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10741,93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-289594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-als","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}