Died On This Date (April 14, 1983) Pete Farndon / The Pretenders
themusicsover Pete Farndon
June 12, 1952 – April 14, 1983
Pete Farndon was the founding bassist of the Pretenders. In 1978, Farndon became the first member of the band to be recruited by Chrissie Hynde. He was soon followed by guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and drummer Martin Chambers. Together they created a sound that fell somewhere between punk and new wave, giving them equal parts respect and commercial success. Farndon’s heavy bass and tough image only complimented Hynde’s bad ass image, helping her become rock royalty. After two back-to-back successes with The Pretenders and The Pretenders II , Fandon’s professional relationship with the band began to sour due to his exsessive drug use. He was asked to leave the band in 1982. But it was Honeyman-Scott who died of drug-related causes just two days after Farndon was let go. Less than a year later, while Farndon was putting together a band with former Clash drummer, Topper Headon, he drowned in his bathtub after an apparent heroin binge. He was just 30.
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Mikey Dread started his career in music as an engineer at the JBC, the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. At the time, the station was broadcasting mostly foreign pop songs, so Dread convinced the higher-ups to give him his own program which he called Dread At The Controls. It eventually became the most popular show on the network. One group of fans of the show were the Clash who invited Dread to England to produce some tracks on their 1980 release, Sandinista! as well as to tour with them through Europe and beyond. Throughout this time he was building his own audience as a respected singer and performer. In his later years, Dread grew disillusioned with the record industry so he quietly retired and went back to school to study electronics and business in his new home city of Miami. This paid off as he was able to regain the rights to his music which he began re-releasing on his own label. In October of 2007, it was announced that he was being treated for a brain tumor. He passed away surrounded by his family at his Connecticut home on March 15, 2008.
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a somewhat outrageous blues and rock ‘n roll singer and musician whose biggest hit, “I Put a Spell On You,” and spooky stage theatrics influenced the likes of Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath. Even Bruce Springsteen has borrowed from Hawkins by coming out of a coffin to kick off his shows around Halloween. After serving in WWII where he was reportedly captured and tortured, Hawkins came home to the U.S. where he became a middleweight boxing champ, and later, a recording artist. In 1956, he released “I Put a Spell On You,” which went on to become a radio staple each year in October and has since been recorded or performed by the likes of Creedance Clearwater Revival, 
Ron Asheton was most famously the lead guitarist for Detroit rock band the Stooges, a garage band lead by the wildly charismatic Iggy Pop. With the Stooges, Asheton was considered by many as ground zero for what would become known as punk rock some ten years later. Born in Washington DC, Asheton began playing the guitar at just ten years of age, perhaps tired of the accordion, which he had been playing since he was five. By the time he turned eighteen, he was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan playing alongside his brother Scott, Iggy Pop and 