Dennis Thompson, founding drummer of MC5, dies aged 75

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

An exact cause of death was not given, although Thompson had reportedly suffered from a number of medical problems in recent months, including a heart attack in April.

Thompson’s death comes just months after the death of his MC5 bandmate, guitarist Wayne Kramer, in February and the death of John Sinclair, the group’s manager, in April. A few months after Sinclair’s death, it was announced that the MC5 would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Musical Excellence Award, and Thompson was determined to perform the induction ceremony even after his heart attack.

Becky Tyner, widow of MC5 singer Rob Tyner, who died in 1991, recalled Thompson’s reaction to the Rock Hall News: “It’s about damn time!” – and added: “Dennis was thrilled, so excited and happy. He just wanted to go home to his cat Annie and was optimistic he would recover.”

Thompson was born into a musical family, his mother was a singer and his father a double bass player. As he recalled in a 1998 interview, he began playing drums at the age of four, and by the time he was nine he was playing guitar with his brother and piano with his sister. Thompson met his future MC5 bandmates in high school in the early ’60s, and the group grew up and cut its teeth in the midst of Detroit’s garage rock heyday.

The MC5 gained notoriety at left-wing rallies in Detroit and released their classic debut, the live album Out with the jamsin October 1968. After that, the band only released two studio albums in the 1970s Back in the USA and 1971s High timesbefore disbanding in 1972. The group’s bitter split was fueled in part by differing political visions, money and clashes with Sinclair, but Thompson also acknowledged that his struggles with heroin addiction were also a factor.

Despite their short run, the MC5 were extremely influential. Thompson’s drumming was particularly unique, his powerful, heated style beats This earned him the nickname “Machine Gun,” even though he anchored his playing in the principles of classic rock’n’roll. “You had to have the groove,” he said Modern drummer (in an interview archived on his website). “You had to roll with the rock. You had to have propulsion and some explosive trick licks. You had to lead the beat ever so slightly to create what many used to call “drive.”

Kramer, in a 2017 interview that was published posthumously this year Turn, called Thompson “one of the preeminent percussionists,” adding, “He was the guy who was able to put together a lot of ideas about the drums that no one else had put together, you know?” He listened to Sun Ra and Elvin Jones. He listened to Charlie Watts, Keith Moon and Mitch Mitchell. He was able to put these things together in a way that no one had ever done before, and develop them further than rock drummers certainly ever had. He had the ability to play outside of time, which I thought was just brilliant.”

In the decades following MC5’s breakup, Thompson played with a variety of other bands, including two with Ron Asheton of the Stooges, The New Order and New Race. In 1992, the MC5 reunited for the first time since their breakup. In the early 2000s, Thompson, Kramer and bassist Michael Davis embarked on a world tour under the name DKT/MC5. This group continued to play regularly until Davis’ death in 2012.

While Kramer was the main host of future MC5 tours, Thompson often agreed to appear on select dates. He also played drums Heavy lifting, a new MC5 album that Kramer revealed in 2023 but has not yet received an official release date. The LP was produced by Bob Ezrin and also featured contributions from Tom Morello, Don Was, Vernon Reid and Slash.