R.I.P. John Berry

An early member of the group, and credited with coming up with the Beastie Boys’ name, Berry died in hospice at 52 years of age. He’d had frontal lobe dementia. R.I.P., John.

Read more about it here.

The Wiki for the Beasties lists the band’s early years thusly:

“The Beastie Boys were an American hip hop group from New York City, formed in 1980. For the majority of its career, the group consisted of Michael “Mike D” Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam “MCA” Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (vocals, guitar).

Originally formed as a four-piece hardcore punk band, The Young Aborigines, in 1978 by Diamond (vocals), John Berry (guitar), Yauch (bass) and Kate Schellenbach (drums), the band appeared on the compilation cassette New York Thrash, before recording their first EP, Polly Wog Stew, in 1982. Berry left shortly thereafter, and was replaced by Horovitz.”