Raymond Bowe of The Barrie Examiner reports: A Barrie native who reached unparalleled heights as a rock star in the late 1980s with the group BONHAM has died.

Daniel MacMaster, 39, died unexpectedly Sunday in Thunder Bay following complications from pneumonia, after a strep A infection entered his bloodstream.

"He was the greatest singer I ever worked with, the greatest person I ever knew," close friend and former SCORCHER bandmate Terry Baker said yesterday from Tampa, Fla. "He was my best friend."

MacMaster was fronting the local rock group SCORCHER when opportunity knocked. The former Barrie North Collegiate student was asked to join BONHAM, which featured drummer Jason Bonham, son of late LED ZEPPELIN member John Bonham.

"He went from a small-town Barrie boy to limousines and airline tickets," said Lafontaine resident Bret Carrigan, HONEYMOON SUITE's drummer from 1998 until 2006.

MacMaster pushed and prodded his way into SCORCHER around 1987, Baker recalled.

"I'm your new singer — I'm gonna tour the world and be famous," Baker recalls MacMaster saying when they met. "He was so cocky, and wouldn't take no for an answer."

Read the entire article at The Barrie Examiner.