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Dennis Thompson, the drummer whose thunderous, hard-hitting style powered the proto-punk sound of the loud, outspoken and highly influential Detroit rock band MC5, died on Thursday in Taylor, Mich. He was 75.<\/p>\n
He died in a rehabilitation facility while recovering from a recent heart attack, his son, Chris McNulty, said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Thompson was the last surviving member of MC5, a band that was politically outspoken and aligned with the countercultural left, supporting the anti-Vietnam War movement and protests against racism. The band will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n Musically, MC5 was known as one of the forefathers of punk rock, starting with the breakout 1969 live album, \u201cKick Out the Jams.\u201d The group\u2019s song of the same name was its best-known, covered by Henry Rollins and Bad Brains<\/a>, The Presidents of the United States of America<\/a> and Rage Against the Machine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When Mr. Thompson joined MC5, short for Motor City Five, in 1966 at 17 years old, his intense playing style earned him his nickname \u201cMachine Gun\u201d from his bandmates for how ferociously he played the drums. He played that way because the group could not afford to connect a microphone to his drums in its early days.<\/p>\n \u201cThe amps were turned up to 10, so he basically just had to hit the drums as hard as he possibly could to be heard,\u201d Mr. McNulty said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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\u2019s band and performing in local bars as a teenager.<\/p>\n When he joined MC5, Mr. Thompson replaced the original drummer of the band, 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n While he liked engineering, which he viewed as stable, he loved music, even though it was \u201cchancy,\u201d Mr. Thompson said in a 2020 interview<\/a>. \u201cI chose fun.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI loved the band, I loved the music,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t doing math at 4 years old, right? I was playing drums.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1969, Mr. Thompson fathered Mr. McNulty with Kathleen Casey, to whom he was married for about five years.<\/p>\n He joined the band along with two guitarists, Wayne Kramer and Fred (Sonic) Smith<\/a>, the singer Rob Tyner<\/a> and the bassist Michael Davis. John Sinclair<\/a>, an activist who founded an organization allied with the Black Panthers called the White Panther Party, managed the band.<\/p>\n The band started playing in V.F.W. halls, sock hops and graduation parties, then signed with Elektra Records in 1968. After \u201cKick Out the Jams,\u201d recorded live at Detroit\u2019s Grande Ballroom in 1968, MC5 released two subsequent albums: \u201cBack in the U.S.A.\u201d and \u201cHigh Time.\u201d<\/p>\n MC5\u2019s use of profanity in lyrics caused problems throughout its tenure. The band\u2019s conflict with a major department store that refused to stock its first album led Elektra to drop the group in 1969.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As Mr. Thompson rode through the life of MC5, he was uneasy with the incendiary image that the band took on, he told the Detroit Free Press in 2003<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI can see it was beneficial because of the notoriety. It was powerful stuff, and that media notoriety helped make us a household word,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at same time it was ending our career. It was killing us.\u201d<\/p>\n Though not a major commercial success before breaking up in 1972, the group left a legacy that grew over time, and it was revered by later bands. Dave Grohl, the Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman, once joined Pearl Jam onstage just to play tambourine<\/a> to \u201cKick Out the Jams.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDennis would tell you that they weren\u2019t the most commercially successful band, but they\u2019re one of the most influential bands,\u201d Mr. McNulty said. \u201cAll of them, especially Dennis, were very proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Thompson went on to play with short-lived bands like The New Order and Motor City Bad Boys in the 1970s before leaving the music industry to work as a tool-and-die maker until his retirement, Mr. McNulty said. But he rejoined surviving MC5 members for reunion tours and performances in the 2000s under the name DKT\/MC5.<\/p>\n