Dead Boys Guitarist Cheetah Chrome Dead At 71

Cheetah Chrome, the guitarist for Cleveland punk originators Rocket From The Tombs and Dead Boys, has passed away. The Dead Boys' social media accounts shared the news that Chrome died on Sunday. No cause of death has been reported. Chrome was 71.Cheetah Chrome was born Eugene Richard O’Connor in Cleveland. In 1974, when he was 19, he joined Rocket From The Tombs, an anarchic Cleveland band that was influenced by the Stooges and the MC5. Rocket From The Tombs never released anything while they were active, but a bunch of their music was reissued years later, after various band members went on to prominence in other bands. (Pere Ubu frontman David Thomas, another ex-Rocket From The Tombs member, died last year.) In the '00s, Chrome spent a few years touring with a reunited version of the band, and they released an album called Barfly in 2011. Rocket From The Tombs broke up in 1974, the same year that Chrome joined the band. Immediately, he got together with fellow ex-members Stiv Bators and Johnny Blitz to form a new band that was initially called Frankenstein before changing their name to Dead Boys. Thanks to encouragement from kindred spirit Johnny Ramone, Dead Boys moved to New Y...