D. Boon

Dennes Dale "D." Boon (April 1, 1958 – December 22, 1985) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Boon was best known as the guitarist and vocalist of the Californian punk rock trio Minutemen. In 1985 he was killed in a van accident.

Biography

Youth

Dennes Boon was born in San Pedro, California on April 1, 1958. His father, a navy veteran, worked installing radios in Buick cars, and the Boons lived in former World War II barracks that had been converted into public housing. As a teenager, Boon began painting and signed his works "D. Boon", partly because "D" was his slang for cannabis, partly after Daniel Boone, but mostly because it was similar to E. Bloom, Blue Öyster Cult's vocalist and guitarist.

Minutemen

Boon formed Minutemen in January 1980 with childhood friend Mike Watt on bass, from their previous band, The Reactionaries, later adding former Reactionaries drummer George Hurley. Their best known album was Double Nickels on the Dime.

Death

The Minutemen continued until December 22, 1985, when Boon was killed in a van accident in the Arizona desert on Interstate 10. Because he had been sick with fever, Boon was lying down in the rear of the van without a seatbelt when the van ran off the road. Boon was thrown out the back door of the van and died instantly from a broken neck. He was 27 years old. The band immediately dissolved, though Watt and Hurley would form the band fIREHOSE soon after. The live album Ballot Result was released in 1987, two years after Boon's death.