George W. Dietrich III
\By Joe   Holley Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 31, 2006
George Washington Dietrich III, 45, a drummer and founding member of the   Invasion, a Beatles tribute band, died of a gunshot wound to his head at his   home in Las Vegas. His death was ruled a suicide.
Mr. Dietrich, known as Geordie, was born in Easton, Md., graduated from  Easton High School in 1979 and spent most of his life in Gaithersburg and Kensington. He attended the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
In the 1980s, he held various jobs, including surgical assistant and physical therapy aide, but his passion was music. You could just look at him and see that he loved what he was doing, said Bart Colombo, a lawyer and the Invasion's Paul McCartney.
The band came together in 1993. Not unlike the real Beatles, the group went through a couple of drummers before finding its Ringo Starr. At the time, Mr. Dietrich was working for Hair Restoration Group and for a pet store in Gaithersburg and taking classes for his physical therapy license. Even though he couldn't read music, he was a gifted drummer.
Geordie just clicked, recalled Colombo. He knew the stuff cold.
The band played at clubs and festivals in the Washington area throughout the 1990s. Originally, its shtick was merely to cover the music of the Beatles, but after a while the band began to morph into the Fab Four, with floppy-haired wigs and skinny black suits for the first set, psychedelic Sgt. Pepper-style attire for the second. Colombo even learned to play the guitar left-handed, like McCartney.
Tom Godsman, a real estate appraiser and the group's George Harrison, credited Mr. Dietrich with inspiring the band to go beyond the music. He got everything rolling for us, he said.
It was very strange and freaky, because with Geordie it felt like I was listening to a drum track taken right off a Beatle record, said Rob Isele, a budget analyst with the Treasury Department and the band's John Lennon. Of all the people in the group, he had the whole thing down -- the mannerisms and the character, as well as the exact drumming style.
The Invasion broke up in 2001. A fire in Mr. Dietrich's house destroyed his costumes and drums, and the group had trouble regaining its momentum.
Earlier this year, Mr. Dietrich moved to Las Vegas, a city he loved, where he was working as a bartender.
Mr. Dietrich's marriages to Kathi Haacke Morehead, Martha Dietrich and Amy DeLacy Dietrich ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of five months, Sherry Kline Dietrich of Las Vegas; a daughter from his first marriage, Elizabeth Kathleen Dietrich of Brunswick, Md.; his mother, Erald Shea Dietrich of Hedgesville, W.Va.; and a companion of many years, Colleen Bourland of Burke.