Joe Grushecky remembers Houserockers keyboardist Gil Snyder

Gil Snyder, keyboardist for the Iron City Houserockers and collaborator with several other groups, died Sunday. He was 72.

The Iron City Houserockers were a legendary Pittsburgh band fronted by Joe Grushecky, who posted the news of Snyder’s death on Facebook.

“It is with great sadness that our Houserocker family announces that our beloved piano man, Gil ‘The Duke’ Snyder, has passed away,” he wrote.

A cause of death has not been revealed.

On Monday, Grushecky looked back on fond memories of his friend and bandmate. Snyder was with the Houserockers from their inception in the mid-1970s. The son of a construction worker, he was a film student at Edinboro University. Grushecky said he was introduced to Snyder by Gary Scalese, the guitarist on the Houserockers’ first album.

“I believe he showed up one day — we weren’t looking for a keyboard player — he showed up one day with Scalese and started playing with us, and that was it. He was in the band. There was no audition,” Grushecky said.

Snyder was with the band through their four studio albums, including 1980’s “Have A Good Time but … Get Out Alive!” and 1981’s “Blood on the Bricks.”

“From getting our demo deal to the last night we played, he was there,” Grushecky said.

Grushecky said from the start to the end, the band was close.

“You couldn’t find a closer group of guys. We used to practice four or five nights a week steady for years.”

While the band’s records have a lasting musical imprint for fans, it was their live shows — especially at former Oakland venue The Decade — where many made memories of The Houserockers, and especially Snyder.

In a Facebook group dedicated to memories of The Decade, one user commented, “Gil was an icon in every sense of the word, may he rest in peace.”

“The Duke……cigarette hanging out of mouth, smoke in his eyes playing keys at The Decade……vision of that to the tune of hypnotized etched in my brain forever,” another user commented on Grushecky’s post.

Grushecky recalled one night at the club when co-owner Don DiSilvio had an old piano he was trying to get rid of.

“So Gilbert, during one of our sets, got up with a chainsaw, somehow trying to saw the piano in half. It was like a scene from a Fellini movie,” Grushecky said. “The crowd actually went berserk. You know, turning the amp up to 10? They had it up to 12, they went crazy.”

As a musician, Snyder had indelible contributions to the band, especially with the melancholy tune “Old Man Bar,” which he sang and co-wrote, from “Have a Good Time but … Get Out Alive.” Another tune was “Hypnotized,” from the same record.

“He was a huge, huge influence on the sound and the look at the presentation,” Grushecky said. “He was just really, really special.”

Snyder also played with a number of memorable local outfits, including Bon Ton Roulet and local all-star band The Mystic Knights of the Sea.

“He was loved,” Grushecky said.

Funeral arrangements have not been finalized.