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John Berry (May 31, 1963 – May 19, 2016) was an American hardcore punk musician. He was a founding member of the Beastie Boys, although he left the band in 1982 before they secured any commercial success.

Berry is credited with conceiving the band's name, Beastie Boys, when the members were teenagers.

Biography

Berry was born on May 31, 1963; his father was John N. Berry, a librarian and journal editor. He attended the Walden School in Manhattan. It was there that he met Michael Diamond, with whom he would found the Young Aborigines, later known as the Beastie Boys. The two other founding members were Adam Yauch and Kate Schellenbach.

The Beastie Boys were initially a hardcore punk band. It was formed at a time when the New York punk scene was witnessing a shift, and Berry was an important part of that transition. Berry played guitar on the band's first release, a seven-inch EP, Polly Wog Stew. He was the first to leave the band, later followed by Schellenbach.

Their first shows were at Berry’s loft on West 100th Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side.

He died on May 19, 2016, at a hospice in Danvers, Massachusetts, of frontotemporal dementia.

References

1. Associated Press. "John Berry, Beastie Boys co-founder, dies at 52". LA Times. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
2. ^ "John Berry, musician – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 2014-05-24. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
3. ^ Grant, Sarah (2014-05-18). "Original Beastie Boys Member John Berry Dead at 52". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 23 June 2016. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
4. Kreps, Daniel (May 20, 2016). "Beastie Boys' Mike D Remembers Original Member John Berry". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
5. Oyebode, Jan (31 May 2016). "Beastie Boy John Berry Died of Frontal Lobe Dementia – But What Is It?". "Elsevier SciTech Connect". Retrieved 7 July 2019.

• 1963 births
• 2016 deaths
• 20th-century American guitarists
• American punk rock musicians
• Beastie Boys members
• Deaths from dementia in Massachusetts
• Deaths from frontotemporal dementia
• Guitarists from New York City
• Musicians from Manhattan
• People from the Upper West Side
• Singers from New York City
• Walden School (New York City) alumni