Rock musician Ric Ocasek, 75, has been found dead in his NYC apartment. No cause of death has been disclosed. He was known as the frontman for the group The Cars.
A more complete obit is here
The Cars grew out of a friendship forged in the late 1960s in Ohio between Mr. Ocasek — born Richard Theodore Otcasek — and Benjamin Orr, who died in 2000. They worked together in multiple bands before moving to Boston and forming the Cars in the late 1970s with Elliot Easton on guitar, Greg Hawkes on keyboards and David Robinson on drums. It was the beginning of the punk era, but the Cars made their first albums with Queen’s producer, Roy Thomas Baker, creating songs that were terse and moody but impeccably polished.
His estranged wife found him this afternoon. It is believed he died of natural causes, probably something like a heart attack, given his age.
I didn't listen to much of The Cars back then, so I started listening to their YouTube vids. Pretty good band. I liked a lot of the music from that era.
Some sources have Ocasek born in 1949, age 70, but he was actually born five years prior. He graduated from Maple Heights High School in Cleveland, Ohio, class of 1963. You can find his junior year high school yearbook on Classmates. He was on the track team at least during his junior year (his senior yearbook has not been uploaded). He might have been held back a year during his school years, and this may be why he graduated in 1963 and not 1962.
Update: The NYT in an update quoted officials as saying he died of high blood pressure and heart disease.
No comments:
Post a Comment