Beastie Boys original member has died May 19 in Danvers, Massachusetts. He was 52.
The news was confirmed by John Berry III, his father, who said his son had been dealing with frontal lobe dementia, a condition that had grown worse in the last few months. He was at a hospice at the time of his death.
Aside from being one of the original members of the band, Berry is credited as being the one responsible for the group's name, coining "Beastie Boys" back when they were teenagers and attending New York's Walden School, where he went with Mike Diamond.
The Beastie Boys were formed in 1981, with Kate Schellenbach and Adam Yauch joining Berry and Diamond. They performed their first shows at Berry's loft located at the corner of Broadway and West 100th Street in Manhattan's Upper West Side, gathering a small but supportive crowd willing to listen to the fledgling band.
In 1982, they recorded Polly Wog Stew, their first seven-inch EP. Berry left the Beastie Boys shortly after that, with Schellenbauch following in 1983. They were replaced by Adam Horovitz. After playing for the Beastie Boys, Berry went on to become a part of a few other bands, including Bourbon Deluxe, Highway Stars, Big Fat Love and Even Worse.
But while Berry left early in the Beastie Boys' career, the group didn't forget his contributions. When the band was inducted in 2012 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Horovitz read a speech made by Yauch, who later on died of cancer that year at 47. In it, Berry was mentioned as a formative member, playing guitar during the band's early years, and was thanked for lending his loft to host the Beastie Boys' first performances despite the elder Berry's objections.
"Will you turn that f*cking shit off already?!" Berry's dad was reported to have said during their first show.
No details have been released yet regarding the Beastie Boy's member's memorial service.
