16 September 2019
Newsdesk
The Cars frontman Ric Ocasek has died.
The 70 year old was found dead in his Manhattan, New York apartment by his estranged wife Paulina Porizkova on Sunday (15Sep19), according to the New York Post.
Ocasek shot to fame as the enigmatic frontman of The Cars in the late 1970s, thanks to hits like My Best Friend’s Girl and Just What I Needed, and he became one of the voices of the MTV generation, thanks to a string of new wave classics.
Ocasek's vocals also featured heavily around the Live Aid marathon in 1985, as The Cars' hit Drive was chosen as one of the event's unofficial anthems.
The group disbanded in the late 1980s but reunited for the album Move Like This in 2012.
Away from the band, private Ocasek wed model Porizkova. They were husband and wife for 28 years until their split in 2017.
The late The Cars frontman was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his bandmates last year, and told Rolling Stone at the event, "It’s certainly a wonderful feeling to be accepted by peers... It’s a positive feeling that you get."
As well as scoring 13 U.S. top 40 singles and five top 10 albums as the leader of The Cars, Ocasek also released several solo projects, including Beatitude and 2005's Nexterday.
