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Dennis Thompson, MC5 Drummer and Last Surviving Original Member, Dead at 75

Dennis Thompson, the founding drummer and last surviving original member of Detroit proto-punk legends MC5, has died at the age of 75.

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. Thompson met his future MC5 bandmates in high school in the early Sixties, and the group came of age and cut their teeth in the thick of Detroit’s garage rock heyday. The group’s acrimonious 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 a factor as well.

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