Guitarist Keith Levene, founder of the British group The Clash, has died today due to liver cancer at his home in Norfolk, England, at the age of 65. At the age of 18, he founded The Clash with guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Paul Simonon, accompanied by the band’s manager, Bernard Rhodes, who asked singer Joe Strummer to join the group.
Strummer had just seen the Sex Pistols perform at the Nashville Rooms and convinced the rest that punk was the style to go with. With the increasingly political drift of The Clash, Levene decided to leave the group and had even more success with Public Image Ltd accompanied by John Lydon, the singer of the Sex Pistols, where he used the name of Johnny Rotten, and they laid the foundations of what later became known as postpunk.
His friend Adam Hammond, according to the BBC, said today that Levene had been fighting cancer for two years, but that his death was unexpected. “He had a lot of plans and he was doing a lot of things,” according to Hammond. Between them, he had completed a book on Public Image Ltd, and was working on music to accompany the publication.
His partner, Kate Ransford; his sister, Jill Bennett; and her husband accompanied her in her last hours. He died “peacefully, calmly, comfortably and loved,” according to the family, who have asked for respect and privacy.
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