Clash founder Joe Strummer dead at 50
By Richard TafoyaDec 22, 2002 11:00 PM
Joe Strummer, founding member of punk icons The Clash, died at his home in England on Sunday.
Joe Strummer, founding member of punk icons The Clash, died at his home in England on Sunday.
An official cause of death was not immediately available, but the BBC reported that he apparently suffered a heart attack. A message on Strummer’s official website on Monday morning (11/23) said, “Joe Strummer died yesterday. Our condolences to Luce and the kids, family and friends.”
Strummer, 50, completed a string of tour dates with his current band, the Mescaleros, in late November. Hein van der Rey, managing director of Epitaph Records, told the Associated Press that Strummer had been working on a third album with the band.
Strummer’s primary claim to fame was as a founding member of the Clash, who with the Sex Pistols sparked the British punk movement of the mid-70s. The band formed in 1977 and released its first album, “The Clash,” in England that year. The timing of that release made the group eligible for induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, and they were recently confirmed to join Elvis Costello, The Police and AC/DC as inductees at the formal ceremony in March of 2003.
The acrimonious ending of the band--Strummer fired frequent co-writer and joint frontman Mick Jones in 1983 following the tour supporting “Combat Rock” and broke up the band two years later--prompted speculation as to whether the Hall of Fame ceremony would see the former members perform together on stage again.
That speculation gained momentum when at one of the final shows of the Mescaleros tour in November, Jones joined Strummer for an encore of early Clash songs “Bankrobber,” “White Riot” and “London’s Burning.”
In recent days, it was reported that Strummer collaborated with Bono and Dave Stewart to write a song they intended to perform together at a Feb. 2 tribute concert for Nelson Mandela. The song, reportedly written around Strummer’s lyrics, is called “48864” after the prison number Mandela wore while incarcerated.