Drummer and last remaining member of Detroit band MC5
Dennis Thompson, the drummer whose thunderous, hard- hitting style powered the proto-punk sound of the loud, outspoken and highly influential Detroit rock band the MC5, died Thursday in Taylor, Mich. He was 75.
He died in a rehabilitation facility while recovering from a recent heart attack, his son, Chris McNulty, said.
Mr. Thompson was the last surviving member of the MC5, a band that was known for being politically outspoken and aligned with the countercultural left; it actively supported the anti-Vietnam War movement and protests against racism.
The MC5 will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October.
The band was also considered one of the forefathers of punk rock and first drew attention with its 1969 live album, “Kick Out the Jams.” The album’s title song was its best known, and has been covered by Henry Rollins and Bad Brains, the Presidents of the United States of America and Rage Against the Machine.
Mr. Thompson was only 17 when he joined the MC5 (the name is short for Motor
City Five) in 1966. His intense, ferocious playing style earned him the nickname Machine Gun from his bandmates. He played that way, he said, because in its early days the group could not afford to connect a microphone to his drum kit.
“The amps were turned up to 10, so he basically just had to hit the drums as hard as he possibly could to be heard,” Mr. McNulty said.
Born Dennis Tomich in Detroit on Sept. 7, 1948, Mr. Thompson grew up in a musical family. His parents, John Tomich and Leona Hicov, were musicians, as was his older brother, who sang and played the guitar, Mr. McNulty said.
He started playing drums at age 4, joining his brother’s band and performing in local bars as a teenager.
Mr. Thompson replaced the original drummer in the MC5, which had been formed in 1965 in Lincoln Park, a Detroit suburb. He graduated from Lincoln Park High School in 1966 and began attending Wayne State University to study mechanical engineering but never completed his degree, Mr. McNulty said.
While he liked engineering, which he viewed as stable, he loved music, even though it was “chancy,” Mr. Thompson said in a 2020 interview. “I chose fun.”
“I loved the band, I loved the music,” he said. “I wasn’t doing math at 4 years old, right? I was playing drums.”
The band’s other members were the guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred (Sonic) Smith, the singer Rob Tyner and the bassist Michael Davis. John Sinclair, an activist who founded the White Panther Party, an organization allied with the Black Panthers, managed the band.
The band started playing in VFW halls, sock hops and graduation parties, then signed with Elektra Records in 1968. After “Kick Out the Jams,” recorded live at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom in 1968, MC5 released two more albums, “Back in the U.S.A.” and “High Time.”
The MC5’s use of profane lyrics caused problems throughout its tenure. The band’s conflict with a major department store that refused to stock its first album led Elektra to drop the group in 1969.
In addition to his son — from his marriage to Kathleen Casey, which lasted about five years — Mr. Thompson is survived by a sister, Donna.