Dennis Danell; Guitarist for Punk Band

Dennis Danell, 38, guitarist for the punk band Social Distortion who came into the band not because of his musical ability but because the band’s singer-songwriter and front man Mike Ness wanted a friend at his side. Danell and Ness had been practically inseparable since their days at Troy High School in Fullerton, although they had known one another since elementary school. While Ness wrote the bulk of Social Distortion’s songs, Danell collaborated with him periodically, and co-wrote a handful of the material from the group’s 1988 “Prison Bound” album. As a guitarist, Danell “was never a [hotshot like] Stevie Ray Vaughan,” said guitarist and songwriter Frank Agnew, the younger brother of Social Distortion founding member Rikk Agnew, “but he always played nice solid rhythm behind Mike and set a nice foundation for Mike to do his stuff over the top of it. He was one of those perfect, loyal rhythm guitar player types--you could always count on him.” Danell and John Maurer, the group’s bassist, formed their own band, Fuel, in 1994, to give them a musical outlet while Ness was busy working on material for a Social Distortion album. On Tuesday in Newport Beach of an apparent brain aneurysm.