MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson, the last surviving original member of the influential group, died Thursday morning at MediLodge of Taylor, where he had been rehabilitating following a heart attack in April. He was 75.
His death comes a little over three months since fellow MC5 cofounder Wayne Kramer died. Other key figures in the band’s history, all deceased, included singer Rob Tyner, guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, bassist Michael Davis and guitarist Kramer. The group’s former manager, John Sinclair, died April 2.
The group was just voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. The induction ceremony will be held in October in Cleveland.
After leaving the MC5, Thompson continued to perform locally with various Detroit bands, and went on to participate in a series of reunion projects with Kramer during the 2000s.
The MC5 formed in 1965. Thompson credited the band’s rise to its blue-collar work ethic and hard work. The group was eventually signed to Elektra Records.
After a public dispute with Detroit department store Hudson’s, which refused to stock the record, Elektra dropped the MC5, even though its album charted, and they signed with Atlantic. They released two more albums,1970’s Back in the USA and 1971’s High Time. They ended things with a farewell Grande Ballroom show on December 31, 1972.
“We thought we were a good band and were on our way. The band liked to rehearse — everybody loved to play,” Thompson recounted to the Detroit Free Press. “We loved what we were doing. It was fast cars, hanging out at the drag strip. It was the best way to break away from the system where you went straight to a factory if you didn’t go to college.”
Thompson remained with the MC5 through the group’s time as Grande Ballroom house band, its live debut album, Kick Out the Jams, and a notorious performance outside Chicago’s Democratic National Convention in 1968.
Thompson battled a heroin addiction in the 1970s, and eventually detoxed. But his refusal to go on tour while getting clean spelled the end for the original group.
Survivors include his wife.
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