Who was Wayne Kramer? MC5 rock band co-founder dies at 75

Wayne Kramer, guitarist and co-founder of MC5, died on February 2, 2024, at the age of 75. The news of the death of an influential singer-songwriter and guitarist was announced via his official Instagram account. However, no further details were provided as to the cause or location of his death.

Wayne Kramer, as mentioned above, was best known for his work with the American rock supergroup MC5. The late singer and guitarist also had several solo albums, which would go on to influence bands like The Clash and Rage Against the Machine.

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The rock band MC5 was formed in 1963 by Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith

Wayne Kramer started his music career in his early twenties with the founding of the supergroup MC5 alongside his friend Fred Smith. The group subsequently recruited Rob Derminer as the lead vocalist and several other members. Speaking about the initial formation of the band in an exclusive interview with Perfect Sound Forever in November 1998, Kramer stated:

"Detroit is the heart of the industrial Midwest, nowadays referred to as the Rust Belt. But in the '50's and '60's, after World War II, Detroit was booming. It was a blue-collar factory, manufacturing center, pretty much the manufacturing center of the universe. So the entire culture revolved around work and essentially, work in the factories."

The singer and guitarist continued:

"So if you fast-forward to the mid-'60's when me and the other guys in the MC5 were in our teens and started to think ahead to what our futures would hold, all you'd see around you was the factory. The MC5, and music, represented a way not to continue in that line...So the idea that I could become a musician opened up some possibilities I didn't see otherwise."

Soon after the band's formation, the group came under the management of Ann Marston, a national archery champion and beauty pageant winner. Marston would take the band on their first successes, introducing a no-drugs and hard work policy that led to some of their more prominent works and live acts, including their career-breaking live performance with the Dave Clark 5 band.

Wayne Kramer, along with the rest of MC5, released their debut studio album, Kick Out the Jams, in February 1969. The album peaked at number 30 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The album also marks the highlight of the band's commercial success, with their subsequent disintegration in the early 1970s soon to follow.

MC5 would go on to release one more influential album before their disbandment, with the 1970 record Back in the USA. The album was a commercial failure but was praised in retrospective reviews for its anticipation of 80s punk and punk rock music.

After the disbandment of MC5, Wayne Kramer took a long hiatus from music, which included, among other things, a four-year prison term at the FMC Lexington for charges of drug possession and several non-music careers during his rehab from drug use.

In the 1990s, Kramer returned to music, releasing his debut studio album, The Hard Stuff, on January 10, 1995, via Epitaph Records. This was followed by several other albums, including Citizen Wayne and Adult World.

Aside from his solo music career, Wayne Kramer is also known as a composer, having scored the soundtrack for the HBO documentary Hacking Democracy as well as the HBO comedy series Eastbound & Down.