Original Beastie Boys Guitarist John Berry 1964 – 2016
By Andy Kahn May 20, 2016 • 11:38 am PDT
Original member of the Beastie Boys, guitarist John Berry has died in Danvers, Massachusetts at the age of 52. According to reports, the man responsible with naming the seminal hip-hop group had battled frontotemporal dementia in recent years.
Berry, along with schoolmate Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “MCA” Yauch and Kate Schellenbach, formed Beastie Boys in 1981. The band’s 1982 debut EP Polly Wog Stew features Berry on guitar. By the end of that year he was out of the band, going on to play in such groups as Bourbon Deluxe, Thwig, Big Fat Love, Highway Stars and Even Worse.
“It’s nice to see the outpouring of love and support for our son,” his father, John Berry III, told CNN. “He was a tremendous son, a tremendous musician, and quite a wonderful artist.”
Berry was praised by the late Yauch in speech he wrote for the band’s 2012 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction which was read by Berry’s replacement in the group Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz. He can be seen discussing his role in the early stages of the Beastie Boys in the video below:
