News

When it comes to the legacy of the Notorious B.I.G., prepare for even more Biggie.

According to a new report in The Wall Street Journal, Biggie’s estate has teamed up with Primary Wave, the music publishing company that has partnered with many pop estates, including those of Whitney Houston, Bob Marley, Stevie Nicks, Prince, and, most recently, the late Cars leader Ric Ocasek and alt-country legend Jerry Jeff Walker. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, Primary Wave’s 50 percent stake in Biggie’s estate gives...

Nada Surf are always the indie-rock grown-ups in the room—the band who know exactly who they are and what they’re doing. Their excellent new Moon Mirror has all the tropes that go into a Nada Surf album: exquisite guitar chimes polished until they gleam, melodies that kick in and stick, songcraft in the finest Big Star/Kinks/Spoon tradition. Matthew Caws sings his impeccably witty tunes about being in love (with a person, with a song, with a feeling) and how it changes over time, without ever settling...

Along with the announcement of their new “Voyage to the Blue Planet” 2024 tour in celebration of The Blue Album’s 30th anniversary, Weezer will be releasing a deluxe version of their seminal 1994 debut this year.

Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo confirmed the new deluxe version during an interview on Audacy Check In, and mentioned that there are unreleased Weezer tracks about to be unearthed. “They just sent me this giant box set with like four albums in it, so I was just looking at it before I walked in here,” Cuomo told Audacy host Kevan Kenny, “There’re a lot of old show recordings and rehearsal recordings. Like very early Weezer.”

When asked if Cuomo knew the release date of the new tunes, he couldn’t say much, but does assume that they’ll be out before Weezer embarks on their “Voyage to the Blue Planet” tour in September. Elsewhere in the interview with Audacy,...

Don Murray, the venturesome actor who earned an Oscar nomination for playing a rodeo cowboy smitten by Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop, then spurned Hollywood’s attempts to mold him, has died. He was 94.

Murray’s son Christopher announced his dad’s death to The New York Times without providing details.

The actor was also known for the interesting parts he went after in such serious films as A Hatful of Rain (1957), The Hoodlum Priest (1961) and Advise & Consent (1962).

Fresh off a starring role in a 1955 Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, Murray was sought by director Joshua Logan to portray Bo Decker, the naive Montana man who falls for the chanteuse Chérie (Monroe), in Bus Stop (1956). It was his first movie, and he was 26 at the time.

“No one could have been less equipped for the job,” he once said. “I was a New...

“This little song [is] from Bruce Springsteen,” Suicide frontman Alan Vega tells a Paris audience in 1988. The audience, which has gathered to hear the duo’s minimalist electro-rock songs like “Ghost Rider,” promptly boos him. “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,” he retorts with his trademark New York snarl, “It’s our version of it. We’ll fuck it up. Don’t worry about it. ‘Born in the U.S.A.'” Then Vega’s partner, keyboardist Martin Rev, kicks into a melody that sounds nothing like the Boss’ epic riff, and...

Paulina Porizkova opens up about finding her ex-husband Ric Ocasek dead as she appears on Wednesday’s episode of “Red Table Talk”.

Porizkova, who married Cars frontman Ocasek in 1989, chats to Jada Pinkett Smith, her daughter, Willow, and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris about Ocasek’s death on September 15, 2019.

Porizkova recalls in a clip shared by People, “He had surgery because they’d found stage 0 lung cancer.

“And he was recovering really well. Two weeks [later], he was walking around, he was starting to feel much better, he was sleeping better. And this night, he said, you know what, I’m feeling kinda tired.”

Read More: Paulina Porizkova Claims She ‘Confused’ Late Ex Ric Ocasek’s ‘Obsession’ With Her For Love

Porizkova says she remembers thinking he’d been sleeping late, but wasn’t overly concerned because he “tended to sleep late” due to his “rockstar hours.”

She continues, “By 11, I was like,...

Near the end of Rage Against the Machine’s first concert in 11 years, frontman Zack de la Rocha walked to the tip of the stage, squinted his eyes shut, and roared out the “fuck you I won’t do as you tell me” climax of “Killing In The Name” as roughly 30,000 fans screamed along in unison, several of them crowd surfing right at his feet despite looking about 20 years too old for such an activity.

It was a cathartic moment Rage fans have been waiting to experience ever since the...

Tony Kanal first heard the names Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare when he was growing up in Southern California in the Eighties. “In my teens, when No Doubt started, we listened to a lot of reggae and ska music,” the bass player says. “And it was hard to have a conversation about reggae music without Sly and Robbie. Their names were synonymous with reggae music… All those quintessential reggae basslines, like ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ by Black Uhuru, were a huge influence. Later on, all those riddims they put together,...

The grieving process has been a long and hard one for model Paulina Porizkova. Porizkova shared an image of her and Ric Ocasek, her late husband, on their last vacation yesterday, writing that “in the 35 years of knowing each other, an overwhelming amount of them were wonderful. This is where I will park. With […]

The post Paulina Porizkova Grieves Late Husband Ric Ocasek Near Anniversary Of His Death appeared first on uInterview.

Paulina Porizkova took to Instagram to address her break-up with Oscar-winning writer Aaron Sorkin, and she also took some time to get the word out concerning the mask mandate by cheekily posing with strategically placed masks and bikini bottoms. Paulina Porizkova also discusses her experience with the dating app Hinge.

On Tuesday, she poked fun at the paparazzi pot-shot, captioning it, "I'm so grateful for his presence in my life. He helped heal me and reclaim myself. There truly may be no better man, no man who's more genuinely 'good'. He's brilliant and witty and funny and sexy. But it doesn't matter how much we may wish we were birds of a feather - we're still a duck and a goose." She continued, "Thank you @dailymail for this slightly goofy paparazzi shot???? . As unfiltered as I usually am, this involves someone else's privacy- so this is all I'll ever say on the subject.

Sleater-Kinney are back to their old tricks, which means trying out some new tricks. The Pacific Northwest punks grabbed the world’s imagination with the 1996 riot-grrrl bombshell Call the Doctor, but ever since, they’ve refused to repeat themselves. Everything about their new album is outside their zone, starting with the title: Path of Wellness. It’s the first album they’ve made as a duo—the band is down to Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker, after a painful and public split with longtime drummer Janet Weiss.

On Path of Wellness,...

“If I can’t make it out of this ditch/I better make a home of it,” Dave Hause sings in his song “The Ditch” off his 2019 album, Kick. It’s a school of thought I’ve been trying to adopt since 2020’s pandemic plotline went off the rails. If this mess isn’t going to end anytime soon — and thanks to good ol’ American dysfunction, that seems to be the case — we have to adapt to living in the ditch.

But that doesn’t mean resignation. Instead, it’s about evolution.

Supermodel Paulina Porizkova has been interviewed for the first time since her late musician husband Ric Ocasek’s death, saying she feels “hurt and betrayal” for being excluded from his will.

Porizkova and Ocasek were planning to divorce, but were still living together when he died. She found the Cars front man’s body in their Gramercy Park townhouse while bringing him his Sunday morning coffee.

The pair married in 1989 and had two sons together. They began divorce proceedings in 2017, but Ocasek died last year on Sept. 15 at age 75 of heart disease before the finalization.

Ocasek signed his will on Aug. 28 and stipulated, “Even if I should die before our divorce is final … Paulina is not entitled to any elective share … because she has abandoned me.”

The estate has $5 million in assets, according to documents filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s court. Porizkova plans to contest the will, which would grant...

The Recording Academy’s “In Memoriam” section, which traditionally runs towards the end of the Grammy Awards ceremony and honors those in the music industry who died in the previous year, is bound to displease many — as the internet’s ire proves annually. Omissions are to blame: some due to time constraints, others to very recent circumstances, but more than anything, our musician heroes are reaching that certain age, may they all rest in peace.

This year’s batch omitted some alternative faves, rap legends and one of rock’s most renowned lyricists. Among the missing were Grateful Dead songwriter Robert Hunter along with Silver Jews’ David Berman, notorious Geto Boy Mc Bushwick Bill, cult singer Scott Walker, Prodigy singer Keith Flint, Talk Talk frontman Mark Hollis, The English Beat/General Public vocalist Ranking Roger, influential guitarist Neal Casal and Little Feat’s Paul Barrere.

In addition, the list misspelled The Cars’ Ric Ocasek,...

It could be an entertaining spectacle, if you ignored the crumbling institutions it was built upon and the creeping fear in the air — but enough about life in 21st century America. The Grammys have their own problems, with the show going on in the face of a roiling crisis at its governing body, the Recording Academy, after recently dismissed CEO Deborah Dugan dropped a long list of grave allegations against it, including rampant gender bias and corruption around the awards process. (The Academy denies it all.)

For all of its flaws,...

Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X were the twin superheroes of Grammy Night 2020, with her green hair and his pink cowboy hat as signs of electric youth. Billie swept the top prizes. It was so poetic to see her accept the Best New Artist award from Alicia Keys — since Alicia won Best New Artist the year Billie was born. And it was poignant to see Smokey Robinson, America’s greatest living songwriter, embrace Billie with a warm hug when she won Song of the Year for “Bad Guy.” It felt...

Keith Urban carried on his tradition of honoring musicians who died in the past year by performing a medley of their hits during his New Year’s Eve headlining concert in Nashville this week.

The singer-guitarist began the seven-minute medley with Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love.” The Swedish band’s singer Marie Fredriksson died at 61 on December 9th. From there, Urban dove into the Captain & Tenille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” in honor of the Captain, Daryl Dragon. “Just Once” for James Ingram and a rendition of 1956’s “Que Sera,...

For a fourth consecutive year, Keith Urban headlined Nashville’s New Year’s Eve party, performing a hits-heavy set in the city’s Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park that featured a guest appearance by Stevie Nicks.

The Fleetwood Mac singer joined the country guitarist on the Nicks and Tom Petty duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” as well as “Second Hand News” and “Edge of Seventeen.”

Urban is no stranger to the Mac catalog. In 2018, he performed for the band at the MusiCares Person of the Year ceremony, offering a...

The man inside the yellow Big Bird suit; TV’s Rhoda; and a “Beverly Hills 90210” heartthrob are just a few of the beloved entertainment figures who died in 2019. Here are some of the unforgettable stars and creators of movies, TV and music who we lost this year.

Movies

Several notable directors died in 2019, including pioneering French New Wave director Agnes Varda, who died March 29 at 90. “Singin’ in the Rain” director Stanley Donen died Feb. 21 at 94, while cult movie director Larry Cohen, who helmed “It’s Alive,” died March 23 at 77. “Boyz N the Hood” director John Singleton suffered a stroke and died April 29 at 51, and renowned documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, who made “Don’t Look Back,” died Aug. 1 at 94. “Romeo and Juliet” director Franco Zeffirelli died June 15 at 96. The colorful studio executive and producer of “Chinatown” and many other films, Robert Evans, died Oct. 26 at 89.

Movie stars who died in 2019 included Doris Day,...

Amid the chaos that was 2019, the show business industry lost some major players. There were icons of the big screen and TV, along with such legends as Broadway director Harold Prince and actress Carol Channing; singers Eddie Money, Ric Ocasek and José José; musicians Peter Tork, Ginger Baker and Dr. John; and composers Michel Legrand, André Previn and Jerry Herman, to name just a few of the year’s high-profile passings.

Hollywood also lost groundbreaking directors, unforgettable writers, and executives.

Familiar actors who left us this year include Robert Forster, Luke Perry, Katherine Helmond, Rutger Hauer, Jan-Michael Vincent, Arte Johnson, Rip Torn, Diahann Carroll, Peter “Chewbacca” Mayhew, Cameron Boyce, Bob Einstein, Seymour Cassel, Michael J. Pollard and Danny Aiello.

Here’s a partial list of musicians we lost in the 2010s: Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Chuck Berry, Ornette Coleman, B.B. King, Etta James, Whitney Houston, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Merle Haggard, Kitty Wells, João Gilberto, Ravi Shankar, Tabu Ley Rochereau, David Mancuso, Amy Winehouse, Abbie Lincoln, Gil Scott Heron, George Jones, George Martin, George Michael, Allen Toussaint, Donna Summer, Phife Dawg, Prodigy, Adam Yauch, Heavy D, Captain Beefheart, Robert Hunter, Gregory Isaacs, Johnny Otis, Big Jay McNeely, Levon Helm, Kate McGarrigle, Guy Clark, Pete Seeger, Ralph Stanley, Gregg Allman,...

Cars singer Ric Ocasek cut ex wife Paulina Porizkova out of his will only weeks before his death. Porizkova was the one to find Ocasek after his death, and she always claimed the two remained close. According to a legal document obtained by Page Six, Ocasek stated “I have made no provision for my wife […]

The post Ric Ocasek Cut Ex Wife Paulina Porizkova Out Of His Will Weeks Before Death: ‘She Has Abandoned Me’ appeared first on uInterview.

Eddie Vedder and Red Hot Chili Peppers teamed up to cover Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “All Along the Watchtower” during the encore portion of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music‘s annual fundraising concert Saturday in Los Angeles. Watch both performances at the 45-minute mark of the above video.

Both the Pearl Jam singer and the Chili Peppers – bassist Flea co-founded the non-profit music school nearly two decades ago – played mini-sets in Silverlake Conservatory of Music’s parking lot to a small audience as part of the benefit,...

Kesha stopped by Rolling Stone to recall pivotal moments in her life for our video series “The First Time.” The singer recently released her new single “Raising Hell” featuring Big Freedia.

Kesha begins by recalling the first time she performed live, which was in a band called Dynamite Cop with her brother. Their show ended with them getting kicked out of the bar they were performing at for being underage, so they moved to a different venue where they witnessed someone smoking crack. Recalling more teenage memories, Kesha’s first...

Kesha’s follow-up to 2017’s emotionally weighty, rock-leaning Rainbow started off as what she describes as a “psychedelic country record.” But a phone call from her brother sent her in another direction.

“He was like, ‘Why don’t you write some pop songs?’ ” she says. “ ‘You’re good at it, you like it.’ ”

She ended up writing 54 songs for the album, High Road, which is due in January — and some tracks feature a return to her original style, complete with rapping à la “Tik Tok” (the 2009 Kesha hit, to be clear,...

A recent episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast tells the story of the Cars’ Ric Ocasek, who went from struggling folk musician to MTV hit-maker to go-to alt-rock producer. David Browne joins host Brian Hiatt to share details from his reporting on Ocasek, who died in September at the age of 75. They look back at the rise of the Cars, Ocasek’s collaborations with Weezer and more.

The episode also takes time to pay tribute to Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, who also died in September, at age 78. Browne,...

In 1993, the members of Weezer traveled to New York to meet Ric Ocasek, who was slated to produce their debut album. “He was one of the most significant icons of our childhood,” says bassist Matt Sharp, who had grown up seeing Ocasek’s hits in rotation on MTV. “I can’t think of videos without thinking of him.”

Arriving at Ocasek’s Manhattan address, the bandmates found themselves entering a stately 1850s townhouse with 20-foot-high ceilings, an elevator, a pink pool table, and portraits of Ocasek done by Andy Warhol hanging on the walls.

Model Paulina Porizkova is is speaking out about her former husband and Cars frontman Ric Ocasek death. He died at 75 on Sept. 15 in his New York City home. Despite their separation, the two remained close, and Porizkova reveals what drew her to the man she says looked like “an upside-down exclamation point,” and who […]

The post Model Paulina Porizkova Speaks Out About Former Husband Ric Ocasek’s Death appeared first on uInterview.

The death of Ginger Baker today at age 80 is a harsh reminder that the superstars of the 1950s-1970s rock era are reaching an age where fragile health becomes more and more common.

The recent deaths of Ric Ocasek, Eddie Money and others hangs heavy over the genre’s fans, and serves notice that those who are still out there performing should be savored for their longevity and vitality.

This week in music:

Farewell To Ginger, Perhaps An Era: The death of Cream and Blind Faith drummer Ginger Baker at age 80 has rocked the Baby Boomer community that remembers his heyday. But even more saddening is the thought that those who dominated in his era are now in that magic 75-80 range. Here is a list of the still-living rock stars, some of them still performing.

Artificially Intelligent And Prolific: Truly busy musicians may release one or two albums and several tracks per year.

Starting in the late Seventies, few rockers were as visually iconic as the Cars’ Ric Ocasek, who died on September 15th of natural causes; he was 75. Equally iconic was Ocasek’s longtime wife, Paulina Porizkova, the Czech-born model who met Ocasek on the set of the Cars’ “Drive” video in 1984.

The two married five years later, although Porizkova announced last year that the couple had separated in 2017. With their two sons, Porizkova was helping tend to Ocasek after a recent surgery, and it was she who first discovered Ocasek’s...

Miley Cyrus’ covers of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, Camila Cabello’s performances of brand new singles “Liar” and “Shameless,” and several surprise collaborations were just a few highlights from the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Festival, which will air as a two-night television special on the CW tonight (Oct. 1) and tomorrow (Oct. 2) from 8 to 10 p.m.

The event, held on Sept. 20 and 21 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, was hosted by Ryan Seacrest and also featured performances by Alicia Keys, Backstreet Boys, Cage The Elephant, Chance The Rapper, Def Leppard, French Montana, Halsey, Heart, H.E.R., Hootie & The Blowfish, Marshmello with Special Guest Kane Brown, Mumford & Sons, Steve Aoki with special guests Darren Criss and Monsta X, Tim McGraw, Zac Brown Band and more.

Seacrest and Christina Aguilera kicked off the show introducing Green Day, who burned through a set of hits that included “Holiday,” “Basket Case,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,...

Red Hot Chili Peppers performed a sizzling rendition of the Cars’ “Just What I Needed” during a concert in Singapore Sunday. The cover pays tribute to frontman Ric Ocasek, who died unexpectedly September 15th at the age of 75.

In the video, a shirtless Anthony Kiedis and Flea take the reigns on the iconic New Wave track, with Flea thumping on bass as Kiedis takes his swelling vocals to new heights. “I loved Ric Ocasek,” Flea wrote on his Instagram after the musician’s death. “What an interesting, smart, kind, funny man who made incredible records.

Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding enjoyed a second consecutive week atop the Rs 200. After clearing half a million album-equivalent units during its debut week, Hollywood’s Bleeding added 193,000 more in the latest tracking week. While Malone sold over 22,000 copies, his second-week total was primarily driven by more than 209 million streams.

That streaming count lifted Malone past The Lumineers, whose album III — their first full-length since 2016 — arrived at Number Two. Album sales accounted for a hefty chunk of the Lumineers’ 90,000 units. Taylor Swift’s Lover took third place on the Rs 200, earning 64,000 album-equivalent units.

New music from an unexpected source, a problem with tickets to a Black Keys show, and technology bringing us a mobile karaoke feature and the return of high-fidelity to streaming services were some of the highlights of the week.

We also saw yet another superstar depart the big stage, as Ric Ocasek of The Cars died in his Manhattan home, leaving behind an impressive legacy.

This week in music:

How Old Was Ric? Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and the mastermind behind The Cars died last Sunday. Ric Ocasek leaves behind a considerable catalog of great music and one mysterious question – how old was he? Some obits said age 70, others 75. There’s considerable differences of opinion among various media, but extensive research by the New York Times finally pegged him as 75 years old at the time of death.

Music Center Problems: It was not a good month at the Music Center.

The Hollywood Reporter's Late Night Lately is a one-stop shop for all of the most memorable moments of late-night TV, coming to you each Saturday morning to ease you into your weekend.

So pour your coffee, set your DVR for the week and sit back. Below are a few of the week's best, funniest and strangest late-night moments that you can't afford to miss.

This week: YouTube star Lilly Singh made her late-night debut on NBC with the new show A Little Late With Lilly Singh. She kicked off the series with guest Mindy Kaling, a musical performance and new ...

Kesha spent Monday morning riding her bike and listening to the second album by Suicide, the wildly influential synth-punk duo. It’s the kind of thing she might do on any given day (“it felt like I was living in a David Lynch film, and that’s kind of all I want in life”), but she was also paying quiet tribute to the producer of that 1980 album, Ric Ocasek. Ocasek died at the age of 75 last Sunday of heart disease, according to the New York City medical examiner’s office.

The Cars were near their commercial peak when they agreed to perform at Live Aid in the summer of 1985, but there was so much talent packed onto the bill at JFK Stadium for the event that even a string of recent hits didn’t help them score a slot better than midway through the show. They came out at 5:39 pm, right after Kenny Loggins played “Footloose” and before Neil Young’s extended set.

They opened up with “You Might Think,” but the song wasn’t included on the official Live Aid DVD.

Stephen Colbert paid tribute to Ric Ocasek on Monday's episode of The Late Show.

Ocasek died Sunday after being found unresponsive in his Manhattan townhouse. The New York City medical examiner later released the cause of death, which was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Pulmonary emphysema was a contributing factor. Ocasek was 75.

The late-night show segment opened with the house band playing "Candy-o" by The Cars, which was written by Ocasek.

"This job gives you a lot of great opportunities. It's a real blessing to do this job," said Colbert after he announced Ocasek's death. ...

Stephen Colbert reflected on the first time he encountered Ric Ocasek, the music of the Cars and the late musician’s comedic contributions to The Colbert Report during The Late Show Monday. Ocasek died on Sunday at the age of 75.

Colbert recalled that Ocasek was the first celebrity he ever saw while visiting New York in college. “I was down in Greenwich Village, getting a cup of coffee, sitting on the sidewalk and Ric fucking Ocasek walked by,” Colbert explained. “And I went, ‘I have to move here. Ric Ocasek lives here!

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus released a cover of the Cars’s classic tune “Just What I Needed” in honor of singer Ric Ocasek, who died earlier this week. Hoppus shared the cover, created with producer James Ingram, on Soundcloud following the news of Ocasek’s passing.

“A couple years ago, I was asked to record a creepy cover of ‘Just What I Needed’ for a TV show,” Hoppus wrote in a post along with the cover. “They wanted moody and strange, dark, and drony, with space for dialogue to go over it.

Updated On Monday, September 16 At 9:25 Pm: The Cars frontman Ric Ocasek died of cardiovascular disease, according to an autopsy report released Monday by the New York City medical examiner’s office.

Previously Reported On September 15:

Ric Ocasek, the spindly frontman of the Cars who was inducted last year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with his New Wave bandmates, is dead, according to authorities in New York City. He was 75.

Ocasek was found dead about 4 Pm Et in his Manhattan apartment by officers who were responding to a 911 call, according to the NYPD. No indications of foul play were found at the scene, police said, and further details were pending an investigation by the medical examiner’s office.

Ocasek was the primary songwriter and co-founded the hit-making band in 1976 in Boston with bassist Benjamin Orr, who died in 2000. The band made their mark in the 1970s with high-polish,...

One day after Ric Ocasek’s death, the family of the Cars frontman wrote that he died unexpectedly — but “peacefully” — while recovering from an unspecified surgery.

“Ric was recuperating very well after surgery,” the Ocasek family wrote on Instagram. “Our two sons, Jonathan and Oliver, and I were making sure he was comfortable, ordering food and watching TV together. I found him still asleep when bringing him his Sunday morning coffee. I touched his cheek to rouse him. It was then I realized that during the night he had peacefully passed on.

Ric Ocasek, the oddball-pop wizard who died on September 15th at age 75, knew how to get the best out of a rock band in the studio. That was true when he was making one timeless radio gem after another with the Cars, and it was true when he gear-shifted into a second career as an in-demand producer in the Nineties and onward. There’s no better example of how Ocasek could make a great band even better than the three records he produced for Weezer — first their classic 1994 debut, the Blue Album,...

Billy Corgan paid tribute to Ric Ocasek, the former leader of the Cars and esteemed producer-for-hire who died Sunday in his New York City apartment at the age of 75. Corgan helped produce the New Wave icon’s 1997 solo effort Troublizing, and wrote the album’s final track, “Asia Minor.”

“Devastated to hear of the passing on this man, Ric Ocasek,” Corgan wrote on Instagram. “It has brightened my spirit to see how many have posted about Ric, praising his originality, flair, and brilliance. I was blessed to have known him,...

Ric Ocasek was one of the all-time great American songwriters: the spirit of Buddy Holly in the body and mind of Mr. Spock, a new wave eccentric who always wanted to brush your rock & roll hair. That’s why the world is in mourning at the news of his death yesterday, at the age of 75. With the Cars, the Boston legend scored hit after hit, yet he also wrote vulnerable ballads about teen angst with his own distinctive blend of compassion and humor, plus his authentic geek-gulp of a voice.

Ric Ocasek, 75, was found dead yesterday in his Manhattan home. He was found unconscious and unresponsive in bed at 4 p.m. and the cause of death is still unclear. Ocasek garnered much of his success as the lead singer of rock band The Cars and as the producer of albums for artists, such as […]

The post The Cars’ Frontman Ric Ocasek Dies In Manhattan Home At 75 appeared first on uInterview.

Weezer paid tribute to Ric Ocasek, the former lead singer of the Cars and renowned rock producer, who helmed three of Weezer’s biggest albums, including their 1994 self-titled debut, better known as “The Blue Album.” Ocasek died Sunday at the age of 75.

“The whole Weezer family is devastated by the loss of our friend and mentor Ric Ocasek, who passed away Sunday,” the band wrote. “Ric meant so much to us. He produced three key Weezer albums, Blue, Green and 2014’s Everything [Will Be Alright in the End], and taught all of us so much about music,...

This interview originally appeared in the April 17, 1997 issue of Rolling Stone

You knew he was tall, but when Ric Ocasek walks out of the Blue Room at the Chung King House of Metal, in New York, you realize he’s impossibly tall — and reedlike to the point of being wispy. The man whom those over 25 know as the former leader of New Wave icons the Cars (and those under 25 know as the producer of Weezer and Nada Surf) is here recording his fifth solo album; Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan is producing a few tracks,...

The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers posted a lengthy tribute to late Cars singer Ric Ocasek following his death over the weekend. Flowers shared the text of an email he wrote to Ocasek a few years ago via The Killers’ Twitter, noting, “Feeling grateful for Ric. Had the opportunity to send him this email a couple years back. My first king. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

In the email, Flowers related to Ocasek how much the Cars have meant to him. “I just wanted to reach out and make you...

When Ric Ocasek learned the Cars were finally entering the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in December 2017—14 years after they were first eligible—he was overjoyed. “It’s certainly a wonderful feeling to be accepted by peers,” said the singer, who was found dead in his New York townhouse on September 15th. “It’s kind of a big thing for me and the band.”

At the time, the Cars hadn’t performed since a quick 12-date reunion tour in 2011 to support their comeback record Move Like This. It was...