Ronnie Montrose performed off and on from 2001 until his death with a Montrose lineup that featured Keith St John (endorsed by Sammy Hagar) on vocals, and a rotating cast of veteran hard rock players including Chuck Wright, Ricky Phillips, Dave Ellefson, Mick Mahan, and Sean McNabb on bass, and Pat Torpey, Mick Brown (Dokken), Eric Singer, Jimmy Degrasso, and Bobby Blotzer (Ratt) on drums. Ronnie successfully battled prostate cancer from 2007 to 2009, and beginning in 2009 had become more musically active, playing regular gigs and doing interviews. Notably, in 2009 Montrose (with Keith St John, Mick Brown, and Sean McNabb) performed at West Fest, the 40th Woodstock reunion at Golden Gate Park for a crowd of 70,000. A reunion of the original Montrose lineup was planned for a one-time performance at Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo nightclub in October 2012. In the latter part of the year before Ronnie's death, Ronnie created the "Ronnie Montrose Band" in order to diversify and include Gamma songs and other songs from his past song catalog in his live shows with Dan McNay on bass, Steve Brown on drums, and Randy Scoles on vocals.