Wayne Kramer, MC5 co-founder, dies at 75

Wayne Kramer, guitarist and co-founder of the Detroit punk band Motor City 5 -- also known as MC5 -- died Friday. He was 75.

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The announcement of Kramer’s death was shared on his and MC5′s social media pages Friday, according to Deadline. A cause of death has not been released.

Jason Heath, a close friend and executive director of Kramer’s nonprofit Jail Guitar Doors however said that Kramer died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles from pancreatic cancer, according to The Associated Press.

MC5 was formed in 1963, WDIV reported. The band had a big influence on the garage rock scene in Detroit along with rock ‘n’ roll music overall.

The band was founded by Kramer and Fred “Sonic” Smith, the news outlet reported. Smith is the late husband of punk music icon Patti Smith.

MC5 only released two albums, according to Rolling Stone. One of them, “Back in the USA,” was released in 1970. The other album was 1971′s “High Time.”

Kramer tried to start a new MC5 lineup as the group’s lead singer. According to Deadline, he was arrested in 1975 for selling drugs to undercover police officers and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Once he was released, he joined Was (Not Was) and then started a band briefly that was called Gang War with Johnny Thunders, according to Deadline. Kramer signed with Epitaph as a solo artist in 1994. He made his debut a year later with “The Hard Stuff” and released three additional solo albums.

Down the road, Kramer reunited with surviving MC5 members. According to Deadline, they toured with acts like Rage Against the Machine.

The band was added to nomination ballots numerous times for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but was never inducted, according to WDIV.

Kramer announced the upcoming release of “Heavy Lifting” last year, Rolling Stone reported. It’s MC5′s first album since “High Time” and it included the original drummer, Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson, Tom Morello, Don Was, Vernon Reid and Slash.

“At the risk of sounding grandiose, fate has cast me as the curator of the MC5 legacy,” Kramer told Uncut last year, according to Rolling Stone. “And to be true to the legacy, I have to stay connected to the basic founding principles the MC5 represents: that we have a working-class approach to the art, and that we continue to try to push the music forward to reflect the world that we live in.”

Kramer released a memoir in 2018 called “The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities,” according to the AP.

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