{"id":1976,"date":"2019-09-16T08:21:45","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T08:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/?p=1976"},"modified":"2019-09-16T08:21:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T08:21:45","slug":"the-cars-lead-singer-ric-ocasek-dies-aged-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/the-cars-lead-singer-ric-ocasek-dies-aged-75\/celebrity-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cars lead singer Ric Ocasek dies aged 75"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ric Ocasek who was the lead singer of the 1980s band The Cars has died aged 75. Ocasek was found dead in his apartment on Sunday after his family found him unresponsive. The cause of death is unknown but there was no signs of foul play.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1977\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1977\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/09\/shutterstock_66741916.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/09\/shutterstock_66741916.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/09\/shutterstock_66741916-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/09\/shutterstock_66741916-768x499.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1977\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Editorial credit: Miro Vrlik Photography \/ Shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ocasek sang, played guitar and wrote some of the band&#8217;s music. The Cars was formed in Boston in the mid-1970s by Ocasek and band-mate Benjamin Orr after they met at high school. The band broke up in the late 1980s as Ocasek started his solo career. Orr then died in 2000 from pancreatic cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In 2011, the remaining band members got back together to0 release a final album.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Many people have expressed their sympathy on social media&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Bryan Adams wrote:<\/strong> &#8220;RIP Ric Ocasek. Great songwriter and singer for the Cars #RIPRicOcasek&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I\u2019m stunned and saddened by the loss of Ric Ocasek &#8211; he was a visionary who affected the lives and hearts of everyone who listened to music in the 80s. God Speed, Ric! Keep Moving in Stereo!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u2014 RainnWilson (@rainnwilson) <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rainnwilson\/status\/1173404086273658881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 16, 2019<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, real name Michael Balzary, wrote on Instagram:<\/strong> &#8220;Ahh man, say it ain&#8217;t so. I loved Ric Ocasek.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;What an interesting, smart, kind, funny man who made incredible records. I loved those Cars albums when I was a teenager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Perfect pop songs with those wicked Elliot Easton guitar solos. Absolute candy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Then he went and produced Rock For Light by the Bad Brains. As an adult I met him several times and he was gracious, funny and engaging. Ahh man.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Ahh damn. Bless his soul. R.I.P. Transcend to the other side Ric. So much love and appreciation from me. You&#8217;re All I Got Tonight.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I will never stop imitating the first Cars album. His influence will always stay with me. RIP and Thank You to Ric Ocasek.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u2014 Carl Newman (@ACNewman) <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ACNewman\/status\/1173413162227572736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 16, 2019<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> Ocasek had six sons and married three times. He was brought up in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio with his family when he was a teenager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ric Ocasek who was the lead singer of the 1980s band The Cars has died aged 75. Ocasek was found dead in his apartment on Sunday after his family found him unresponsive. The cause of death is unknown but there was no signs of foul play. Ocasek sang, played guitar and wrote some of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[840,839],"class_list":["post-1976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-news","tag-ric-ocasek","tag-the-cars"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1978,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions\/1978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}