Frontman for 'The Cars,' Ric Ocasek, Dead at Age 75
Ric Ocasek, the frontman for the new wave band The Cars, was found dead Sunday afternoon in his New York City apartment. He was 75.
Ocasek was found unconscious and unresponsive by his ex-wife, model Paulina Porizkova, the New York Post reported.
He appeared to have died from natural causes.
The Cars’ popular 1978 debut album titled “The Cars,” included the hits “My Best Friend’s Girl,” “Good Times Roll” and “Just What I Needed.”
In 1981, the band had another hit with “Shake It Up,” followed with the “Drive” in 1984.
In 2018, when the band was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Brandon Flowers of the Killers called The Cars “a slick machine with a 340 V8 under the hood that ran on synergy, experimentation and a redefined cool. They had it all: the looks, the hooks, Beat romance lyrics, killer choruses,” according to The New York Times.
Many people wrote tributes to Ocasek on social media.
The weezer family is devastated by the loss of our friend and mentor Ric Ocasek, who passed away Sunday. We will miss him forever, & will forever cherish the precious times we got to work and hang out with him. Rest in Peace & rock on Ric, we love you. #RIPRicOcasek #karlscorner pic.twitter.com/JcTXevr6V8
— weezer (@Weezer) September 16, 2019
Ugh. How horrible. The Cars were one of my very first rock loves. One of my most cherished memories is hanging out w Ric back in 2008 while on #ColbertReport w him. He was so gentle (I was a nobody) and tolerated all my qs about @thestrokes sound and him. https://t.co/nnIg3F8hht
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) September 16, 2019
Rest In Peace Ric Ocasek
“As a songwriter, oddly enough, my influences were people like Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, and Buddy Holly. Some psychedelic stuff, too.” pic.twitter.com/V0aB2EQtyS
— 41 Strange (@41Strange) September 16, 2019
“Every band I ever had I wrote songs for. That’s basically what I wanted to do,” Ocasek told The Vinyl District earlier this year.
“I liked songwriters, I was always attracted to people like Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Gene Vincent in the ’50s, and when the ‘60s came, of course I loved The Beatles, but I also loved the Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, and Frank Zappa. They were more interesting than the straight up pop stuff. Those are the kind of things I had interest in. The kind of stuff I produced as well had the same sort of background, more artistic,” he said.
“I always liked great songs, and it didn’t matter if it was from the Carpenters or Lou Reed. As long as they were done well and they weren’t corny or fake.”
He expounded upon his songs in a 1980 interview with Rolling Stone.
“I feel like my lyrics are pretty plain and straightforward in their language. The idea behind them is just to set up images that convey an impression or picture, and I don’t feel like I should modify my language to fit the expectations of the people who listen to them,” he said.
“Some critics have said that I write about romantic detachment from a cynical perspective. Well, I am concerned about love. I think people play around a lot with each other’s heads and hearts, and I really don’t witness much love or emotion between people,” he continued.
“In fact, in all the situations I see, relationships come apart easily. So I don’t think there’s any reason for me to write in warm tones about the hope that love offers.”
Ocasek told The Vinyl District in February he was working on a new album.
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