Cheetah Chrome, historic guitarist of the Dead Boys and Rocket From The Tombs, has died

Cheetah Chrome, legendary guitarist for the Dead Boys and Rocket From The Tombs, has died at 71. He was among the figures who helped define the sound and attitude of the first wave of American punk rock. The musician, whose real name was Eugene Richard O’Connor, passed away on Sunday, September 13. The cause of death has not been made public.
“Cheetah was a true original, one of the architects of the punk rock movement,” the Dead Boys wrote in announcing his passing. “A hurricane in human form who upended the musical landscape with ferocious guitar riffs and frantic energy. But beyond all that, he was also simply a sweet guy who loved rock'n'roll.”

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on February 18, 1955, Chrome took his first steps in music in 1974, joining Rocket From The Tombs, a short-lived proto-punk outfit that would nonetheless leave a deep mark on the American underground. The band, which also included musicians who would go on to form Pere Ubu, blended the impact of the Stooges and the rawest edges of rock with radical, nihilistic songwriting. In 1975 they even opened for Television and Patti Smith, before disbanding in August of that same year.
Out of its ashes came the Dead Boys. Chrome, alongside Stiv Bators, Johnny Blitz, Jimmy Zero and Jeff Magnum, moved to New York and plunged into the heart of the emerging CBGB scene. The band's shows quickly became notorious for their sonic violence and provocative attitude: at the center of it all were Bators' reckless stage antics and Chrome's razor-sharp guitar, which brought to punk an aggression that never abandoned technique or the tradition of rock'n'roll.

1977 saw the release of “Young, Loud And Snotty”, produced by Genya Ravan and now regarded as one of the essential albums of the first wave of American punk. It opened with “Sonic Reducer”, destined to become one of the genre's most enduring anthems. The following year came “We Have Come For Your Children”, before the band broke up in 1979.
Chrome kept playing on the New York scene, collaborating with, among others, the Stilettos and forming Cheetah Chrome And The Casualties. He also took part in “Siren”, Ronnie Spector's solo debut album. In the years that followed, the Dead Boys reunited on several occasions: in 2017 they celebrated the 40th anniversary of their debut with a tour and with “Still Snotty: Young, Loud And Snotty At 40”, a new recording of their first album.

In 2003 Chrome also brought Rocket From The Tombs back to life alongside David Thomas and Craig Bell, with Steve Mehlman of Pere Ubu and Richard Lloyd of Television. This new incarnation released “Rocket Redux”, a re-reading of their old repertoire, followed by “Barfly”, an album of unreleased material that came out in 2011.
His story, though, wasn't limited to the Dead Boys and Rocket From The Tombs. Chrome also played with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls in Batusis, published his 2010 autobiography “Cheetah Chrome: A Dead Boy's Tale From The Front Lines Of Punk Rock”, and, after relocating to Nashville, worked at Plowboy Records as creative director of A&R and head of special projects. In 2014 he also released the solo album “Solo”.

Tributes poured in from across the rock world. Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses recalled just how much Chrome had shaped his own approach to music: “Your guitar playing and your assault-like spirit taught me so much about aggression and precision, in punk and beyond. Getting to know you in recent years was a real honor. Dead Boys forever. Cheetah Chrome forever!!”

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Chrome's death comes as the Dead Boys were preparing a new tour for 2027, planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Young, Loud And Snotty”: half a century on from that incendiary record, the guitarist remained tied to a story of which he had been not just a protagonist, but one of its true architects.

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