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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.

MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson has died after complications from a heart attack. He was 75 years old.

As reported by the Detroit Free Press, Thompson passed away at a nursing home in Taylor, Michigan on Wednesday (May 8th), where he had been rehabilitating from a heart attack he suffered in April.

Nicknamed “Machine Gun” due to his fast, hard-hitting style of drumming, Thompson was the last surviving member of MC5, which will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the Musical Excellence category this fall.

Born in the Detroit area, Thompson picked up the drums when he was just nine years old. While still in high school, he joined a garage band called the Bounty Hunters alongside his friend and future MC5 bandmate Wayne Kramer on guitar.

Kramer co-founded MC5 with fellow guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith in 1963, with Thompson joining the group a few years later to fill...

Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson, the founding MC5 drummer and the last surviving original member of the pioneering proto-punk group, died Wednesday, The Detroit Free Press reported. He was 75.

An exact cause of death was not given, though Thompson had reportedly suffered a series of medical issues in recent months, including a heart attack in April.

Thompson’s death comes just a few months after the February death of his MC5 bandmate, guitarist Wayne Kramer, and the April death of John Sinclair, the group’s manager. A few months after Sinclair’s death,...

Wayne Kramer, co-founder, guitarist, and singer of the influential Detroit rock band MC5, has died at the age of 75. Kramer’s passing was announced on Friday (February 2nd) in a post shared to Instagram, revealing that the legendary musician died of pancreatic cancer.

“Wayne Kramer passed away today peacefully from pancreatic cancer. He will be remembered for starting a revolution in music, culture, and kindness,” read the statement on his official Instagram account.

MC5’s history dates back to 1963, when Kramer started a band with fellow guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith. After a couple years, the classic lineup of Kramer, Smith, singer Rob Tyner, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson was in place.

While MC5 never reached mainstream success and only released two studio albums — 1970’s Back in the USA and 1971’s High Time — they remain one of the most influential rock bands of all time, paving the way for...

The nominations for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022 are in, and the list features Eminem, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Duran Duran, Beck, Pat Benatar, Carly Simon, A Tribe Called Quest, Kate Bush, Devo, Judas Priest, Eurythmics, Fela Kuti, MC5, New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine, and Dionne Warwick. The top vote-getters will be announced in May and inducted in the fall.

“This year’s ballot recognizes a diverse group of incredible artists, each who has had a profound impact on the sound of youth culture,...

The nominations for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2020 are in, and the list features the Notorious B.I.G., Whitney Houston, Pat Benatar, Dave Matthews Band, Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, Judas Priest, Kraftwerk, MC5, Motörhead, Nine Inch Nails, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Todd Rundgren, Soundgarden, T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy. The top vote-getters will be announced in January and inducted May 2nd, 2020, at a ceremony at Cleveland’s Public Hall.

To be eligible for this year’s ballot, each nominee’s first single or album...

In the fall of 1968, Wayne Kramer saw his dreams come true when Elektra Records came to Detroit and signed his band, the MC5. “This was the deal I was looking for,” he writes in his new memoir The Hard Stuff, “with a very hip label that had pockets deep enough to market the band properly.” With a strong creative and performing nucleus in vocalist Rob Tyner and the double guitar team of Kramer and Fred “Sonic” Smith, greatness seemed to be waiting. Instead, their embrace of radical politics put the...

Los Angeles -- He spent two years in a federal lockup for trying to sell cocaine to undercover agents, and all Wayne Kramer can think about these days is trying to find a way to get back behind bars.

This time, though, the guitar god for rock music's seminal pre-punk band, the MC5, wants to bring his ax with him – and a few dozen others for the inmates to play.

With a little help from friends like the Foo Fighters' Chris Shiflett, former Guns `N Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and others, Kramer has formed Jail Guitar Doors USA.

He runs the nonprofit charitable organization with his wife, Margaret, out of the Hollywood studio where he makes a comfortable living these days composing music for movies and television. Over the past two years, Jail Guitar Doors USA has delivered scores of instruments to prisons and jails in Nevada, California and Texas.

Michael Davis, the bassist of legendary rock band the MC5, has died of liver failure, his wife said Saturday. He was 68. Davis died at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Calif., on Friday afternoon after a month-long hospitalization for liver disease, said Angela Davis. Born on June 5, 1943, the bassist gained attention in the MC5 and later played in a version of the group called Dkt-MC5 with former MC5 members Wayne Kramer on guitar and Dennis Thompson on drums. The latter two are now the only surviving members of the classic MC5 lineup: singer Rob Tyner died

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David C. Thomas' documentary chronicles the rise and fall of the MC5, the seminal, Detroit-born rock band whose musical influence has far outweighed its minimal record sales and short duration. Featuring copious amounts of archival and performance footage, as well as interviews with the band's surviving three members and former manager, "MC5: A True Testimonial" is an invaluable addition to the rock history cinema archives. It is currently playing at New York's Cinema Village, with openings shortly in Dallas and Washington.

The band, whose best known album is their debut, "Kick Out the Jams", was born in the late 1960s in economically depressed Detroit and lasted a mere few years before imploding in 1972. Renowned for their high-energy, high-decibel live performances, they were also known for their countercultural influence. Their manager, John Sinclair, was a leader of the radical White Panthers organization, thus causing the group to be the subject of surveillance by the FBI.

Relying heavily on the personal testimony of Sinclair and surviving band members Wayne Kramer, Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson -- the group's perhaps most colorful members, Fred "Sonic" Smith and Rob Tyner, died several years ago -- the film documents the band's personal and career triumphs and travails in haphazard but entertaining fashion. While the interviews tend to ramble at times without focus, there's no shortage of colorful anecdotes, and the band's volatile history, including repeated difficulties with their record companies, provides plenty of innate laughs and drama.

Best of all, the documentary delivers plenty of performance footage, which, though quite raw in terms of technical values, well showcases the band's ass-kicking power and the reason for their legendary status.

David C. Thomas' documentary chronicles the rise and fall of the MC5, the seminal, Detroit-born rock band whose musical influence has far outweighed its minimal record sales and short duration. Featuring copious amounts of archival and performance footage, as well as interviews with the band's surviving three members and former manager, "MC5: A True Testimonial" is an invaluable addition to the rock history cinema archives. It is currently playing at New York's Cinema Village, with openings shortly in Dallas and Washington.

The band, whose best known album is their debut, "Kick Out the Jams", was born in the late 1960s in economically depressed Detroit and lasted a mere few years before imploding in 1972. Renowned for their high-energy, high-decibel live performances, they were also known for their countercultural influence. Their manager, John Sinclair, was a leader of the radical White Panthers organization, thus causing the group to be the subject of surveillance by the FBI.

Relying heavily on the personal testimony of Sinclair and surviving band members Wayne Kramer, Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson -- the group's perhaps most colorful members, Fred "Sonic" Smith and Rob Tyner, died several years ago -- the film documents the band's personal and career triumphs and travails in haphazard but entertaining fashion. While the interviews tend to ramble at times without focus, there's no shortage of colorful anecdotes, and the band's volatile history, including repeated difficulties with their record companies, provides plenty of innate laughs and drama.

Best of all, the documentary delivers plenty of performance footage, which, though quite raw in terms of technical values, well showcases the band's ass-kicking power and the reason for their legendary status.