Rocker Ric Ocasek, frontman of The Cars
New York — Ric Ocasek, The Cars frontman whose deadpan vocal delivery and lanky, sunglassed look defined a rock era with chart-topping hits like “Just What I Needed,” was discovered dead Sunday afternoon in his Manhattan apartment.
The New York Police Department said that officers found the 75-year-old Ocasek at about 4 p.m. after responding to a 911 call.
The New York City medical examiner said Monday that Ocasek died of heart disease, worsened by emphysema.
The death comes a year after The Cars were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, followed by an announcement by model Paulina Porizkova on social media that she and Ocasek had separated after 28 years of marriage. The pair first met while filming the music video for “Drive,” another Cars hit.
Porizkova, posted a statement on Instagram Monday, saying Ocasek was “recuperating very well after surgery” and that their two sons were making sure he was comfortable. Porizkova did not say what type of surgery Ocasek was recovering from.
She said she went to bring him his Sunday morning coffee and “realized that during the night he had peacefully passed on.”
Ocasek, who sang, played guitar and wrote most of the band’s songs, and Benjamin Orr, who played bass and also sang, were ex-hippie buddies who formed The Cars in Boston in 1976. They were a decade older than many of their modern-rock compatriots but became one of the most essential American bands of the late 1970s and 1980s with their fusion of new wave, 1960s pop and 1970s glam.
Ocasek’s minimalist, half-spoken deadpan vocals set made the band’s sound, and his long, lanky appearance formed their lasting image.
The first three songs on their 1978 self-titled first album were all hit singles and remain widely known classics and oldies radio airplay: “Good Times Roll,” ‘‘My Best Friend’s Girl” and “Just What I Needed.”