Jim Carroll dies of apparent heart attack

Punk rock poet Jim Carroll died of a heart attack Friday (9/11) at his home in Manhattan, according to The New York Times. Carroll, who is best known in the music world for his cult hit "People Who Died," was 60.

Years before launching a musical career, Carroll's poetry inspired many to tout him as a powerful voice of his generation--in the vein of Allen Ginsberg, Ted Berrigan, Bob Dylan and Jack Kerouac.

His best-known work, "The Basketball Diaries," chronicled his young life as a teenage basketball star at an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan who ended up a heroin addict that supported his habit by hustling in Times Square. The journal, which was reissued in a mass-market edition in 1980, was adapted to film in 1995 with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role.

Responding to news of his death, singer Patti Smith told the NY Times that Carroll was "pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation" by the time she met him in 1970.

Smith is credited with helping Carroll launch his musical career when she brought him on-stage to declaim his poetry with her band providing background. Carroll reportedly was so encouraged by the response, he formed his own band which quickly caught the attention of Keith Richards. The Rolling Stones guitarist then arranged a three-record deal with Atlantic Records.

Carroll's debut album, "Catholic Boy," featured "People Who Died," which also was included on the soundtrack for "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial."

Carroll followed "Catholic Boy" with 1982's "Dry Dreams" and 1984's "I Write Your Name." During the 1980s, he also wrote lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult and Boz Scaggs.

He returned to the studio in the late 1990s to record "Pools of Mercury." In addition to his musical works, Carroll released several spoken-word albums.

Carroll briefly attended Wagner College on Staten Island and Columbia University. After his abbreviated college career, he worked with Andy Warhol, contributing dialogue for the artist's films. He later worked as a studio assistant for the painter Larry Rivers. Carroll wrote about that frenetic period in his life--during which he lived with Patti Smith and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe--in "Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries, 1971-1973."

In 1973, Carrol left New York, reportedly to escape drugs. He settled in an artsy community north of San Francisco. He was married to Rosemary Klemfuss in 1978; the marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by a brother, Tom.