Making a tragic rock weekend even worse, on the heels of the death of Eddie Money comes word that Ric Ocasek, the founder and lead singer of the seminal new wave band The Cars, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Sunday afternoon. He was 75 years old.
Law enforcement sources told The New York Post‘s Page Six that Ocasek was discovered unconscious and unresponsive at around 4:14pm ET Sunday inside his Gramercy Park home by his estranged wife, former model Paulina Porizkova. He appeared to have died from natural causes, sources added. Ocasek and Porizkova — who shared two children together — had been together for 28 years when they separated in May 2018.
The Cars shot to fame with their self-titled 1978 debut album, which included the hits “My Best Friend’s Girl” and “Just What I Needed.” From 1978 to 1987, the band put out six albums, and in 1984, won MTV’s “Video of the Year” award for “You Might Think.” After a lengthy hiatus, The Cars reunited in 2011 and released an album called Move Like This. It was the band’s first, and only, album without bassist Benjamin Orr, who died in 2000. The Cars were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.
–story from RAMP