“He had a voice that was equal to anyone singing rock ‘n’ roll in the country. He may not have been the best, but there wasn’t anyone better.”

That’s how longtime Mahoning Valley radio personality Thomas John described Dennis Michael Sesonsky Sr., better known as Dennis T. Menass, lead singer of Left End.

Sesonsky died Monday at age 65 after a long battle with cirrhosis of the liver.

Back in the ’70s, when Idora Park and Packard Music Hall regularly brought in national rock acts and when clubs like the Youngstown Agora and the Apartment would pack fans in with local and national talent, no band was bigger in the Mahoning Valley than Left End. And much of its success was due to its flamboyant frontman, Dennis T. Menass.

Sesonsky sang with the Pied Pipers when he still was in high school, and he joined Left End in 1971 just after band’s original lead singer left, according to drummer Pat Palombo.

“He walked in and said, ‘You’re one of the most obnoxious, loud bands I’ve ever heard. I’d love to work with you guys’,” he said.

Even then he had aspirations beyond the Valley. One of his prerequisites for joining Left End was that it focus on recording and playing original material instead of just doing covers of other band’s songs. Within two weeks, the band had written “Sunshine Girl,” which made it to number three on the local radio charts.

Left End recorded that song and other demos at Peppermint Studios in Youngstown with Gary Rhamy as engineer and producer.

“You could just see this was a fellow who was destined to be in front of a microphone and in front of an audience,” Rhamy said. “He had that sound, that charisma, that character.”

Left End was signed by Polydor Records, which released the band’s “Spoiled Rotten” LP in 1973. The band toured nationwide and played with such acts as The Eagles, J. Geils Band, Alice Cooper and ZZTop.

After personnel changes at Polydor, the band hired a lawyer to get out of its recording contract, according to the history on the band’s website, www.leftendband.com. Left End didn’t land another major label deal, but the band remained a big draw in northeast Ohio and garnered radio play with such songs as “Bad Talkin’ Lady,” “Molly Brown” and “Cyclone Rider.”

The band broke up in 1985, but reunited a few years later and released “Live, Living and Breathing” in 1989.

“If you really want to see the peak of Dennis performing … when you hear him live on ‘End of My Rope’ and ‘Medusa,’ I don’t know any singer around who could attempt those songs live and hit it in front of a crowd,” Palombo said.

And John said, “He really was just absolutely obsessed with putting it all out there every song, whether it was delivery, costume, whatever. You never ever felt that Dennis was mailing it in.”

David Lemasters re-placed Roy Guerieri in the original lineup on “Live, Living and Breathing” and its subsequent shows, which gave him the experience of going from being a fan of the band to being one of its members.

“I always said he was one of the greatest rock singers ever,” Lemasters said. “His intensity on stage, standing next to him, only the musicians who played with him would realize it. The way he commands the stage, his intensity is amazing. You’d just totally feel the heat off of his performance and it would elevate your own.”

Palombo said he and Sesonsky would talk on the phone every day, and he and Left End guitar player Tom Figinsky visited Sesonsky in the hospital last week before his condition worsened.

Left End will be honored at the Youngstown Music Awards on Nov. 30, and Palombo said Sesonsky was looking forward to the event.

“He was planning to be there with us,” Palombo said. “He knew he wouldn’t be able to perform but he wanted to be there. He said, ‘I can’t wait ’til that November thing. You guys are going to blow them away.”

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Gray is a reporter for the Tribune Chronicle in Warren.