I would appreciate some of DU's good vibes or

[highplainsdem]

90. Article IN ENGLISH - with new photos - about George being made an honorary citizen

of Rijkevorsel, the town in Belgium he's lived near most of his life.

The article is at https://netherlands.postsen.com/music/131774/George-Kooymans-74-of-Golden-Earring-honorary-citizen-of-Rijkevorsel-Playing-guitar-is-no-longer-possible-due-to-ALS-Rijkevorsel.html

There are three photos, two showing his family as well. In the first one, where they're standing around George in his wheelchair, that's George's daughter and her partner and their daughter on the left, And on the right are George's son and his partner and their two daughters, with George's wife - who's the younger sister of Golden Earring bass player Rinus Gerritsen - standing behind the oldest grandchild. You can see some of his family in the second photo, too.

From the article:

The municipality of Rijkevorsel has a twelfth honorary citizen. Guitarist and composer George Kooymans (74) of the Dutch rock group Golden Earring was presented with the certificate and several gifts on Saturday. He has lived in the Kempen village for fifty years. Unfortunately, due to the muscle disease ALS, playing the guitar is no longer possible, but Kooymans can look back on a rich career. “You only now realize what you have achieved.”

Kooymans was born in 1948 in The Hague. At the age of thirteen he founded Golden Earring with some friends. RadarLove, Twilight Zone and When the Lady Smiles are some of the group’s best-known and international hits. Kooymans co-wrote most of the songs they recorded. After sixty years, Golden Earring put an end to it in 2021 because Kooymans has been diagnosed with ALS. “Playing guitar is no longer an option,” says George Kooymans. “My fingers are too crooked. Singing is still possible. Everything is limited by the disease. My days mainly consist of listening to music and reading. And every week we get together with some friends. A career in music happens to you, you only now realize what you have achieved.”

George’s friends knocked on the door of the city council to declare him an honorary citizen. “When that news became known, we received a lot of positive reactions in Rijkevorsel,” says friend Stanny Van Ostaeyen. “With his oeuvre, George has moved a stone in a musical river. Yet he and his family have always remained ordinary people without delusions of grandeur. After a performance for 20,000 fans abroad, you could see him standing in line at the checkout of the supermarket a day later to pay for his groceries.”

George Kooymans received a certificate of honorary citizenship from the municipality of Rijkevorsel, together with a few gifts. There were flowers for his wife Milly. Their two children and three grandchildren were also there in the council chamber of the town hall. “It is a very great honor”, ​​says George Kooymans. “We have lived in Rijkevorsel for almost fifty years and feel at home there. Actually, we ended up here quite by accident. The intention was to move to the United States in the early 1970s, but that was not easy. That is why we went to Rijkevorsel to look. I have lived here for more than half my life, yet I have remained Dutch. I have not adopted the dialect.”

-snip-