Ric Ocasek, lead singer of The Cars, found dead in NYC

Ric Ocasek, the singer whose popular new-wave band, The Cars, helped define the sound of rock music in the late 1970s and ’80s, was found dead in his New York City apartment on Sunday. Ocasek was 75 years old.

His estranged wife, supermodel Paulina Porizkova, found him unresponsive Sunday afternoon at his home in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighbourhood. He apparently died of natural causes police said and there were no signs of foul play.

The band’s 1981 single “Shake It Up” hit number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while 1984’s “Drive” hit number 3 in the charts.

Their 1984 ballad Drive was used as background music for footage of the Ethiopian famine, and its re-release as a single after Live Aid helped raise money for the cause.

The band was formed in Boston in the mid-1970s by Ocasek and band-mate Benjamin Orr after they met at high school. After the band broke up in the late 1980s, Ocasek embarked on a solo career.

Via Variety