Formed in Long Island, New York in 1969, Cactus evolved through many different
incarnations playing different styles of hard rock. The driving force for much
of their long career has been drummer Carmine Appice, who originally came to
fame with 1960s psychedelic band Vanilla Fudge, but left with bass player Tim
Bogert in '69 to form Cactus, concentrating on blues rock with guitarist Jim
McCarty and singer Rusty Day. The plan was for guitarist Jeff Beck to be in the
original line-up but he was forced to withdraw following injury in a car crash.
They went on to release three well-r...