Rick Ocasek, who was the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the group: The Cars, just passed away at the age of 75 from heart disease. Not only did his group have awesome songs which mostly Rick wrote such as: “Drive,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” “You Might Think,” “Shake It Up,” and “Good Times Roll,” they also won the very first MTV Music Video Award for Best Video. They were a very artistic/creative group, so their videos were often fan favorites. They couldn't be compared to any other group as their sound was unique.
He loved music but didn’t have many people around him as excited about it as he was so he was kind of lost in high school. His parents made him attend college at Bowling Green State University but he couldn't stand being there so he dropped out to pursue a career in music. As you can imagine, his parents weren't thrilled.
Rick spent the first six years back in the early 70’s trying to get a band up and running but had several failures. He finally found the right mix of talent and The Cars were formed in 1976 in Boston. They were officially touring and putting out albums beginning in 1978. During this process, they found that Rick had a lot of talent in the production studio and he ended up producing records for other artists. By the way, his first album titled: “The Cars,” stayed on Billboard’s Top 200 Chart for over two years.
The Cars disbanded in 1988 after a great ten-year run. Rick went on to dabble in putting out some solo work, but he had other passions as well including art and poetry. He released a book of poetry in 1993. In 2012, Ocasek released Lyrics and Prose, a complete collection of lyrics from his solo and Cars' albums. The book also contains prose and poetry never set to music, as well as previously unpublished photographs and artwork. There were many offers during these years for The Cars to begin touring again but Rick wasn’t interested; he did tell the other band members to go ahead and he recommended a good lead singer to replace him. Going out on the road again touring had no interests to him.
Rick was married three times, once when he was very young, and they had two boys. He divorced her in 1970. He then remarried (Suzanne), in 1971, and they had two boys. During filming of the music video for the Cars' song "Drive" in 1984, Ocasek met 18-year-old supermodel Paulina Porizkova — while he was still married to Suzanne. Five years later he divorced her after 18 years of marriage and married Porizkova. They had two boys so at this point Rick had six sons. His oldest son became a music artist as well and his music was featured in the movie: Pretty Woman. After around 29 years of marriage, he and Porizkova separated in 2018. It was a friendly separation and they were still doing things together up until Rick passed away.
Rick’s music was amazing, but the bottom line is that he was an artist with many creative outlets. He dreamed of playing in a band and he got to live his dream for ten years, but after this, he wanted to express himself in other ways. If you're having trouble remembering what Rick looked like, picture Howard Stern as they could've been brothers; they even sounded alike. :)
He loved music but didn’t have many people around him as excited about it as he was so he was kind of lost in high school. His parents made him attend college at Bowling Green State University but he couldn't stand being there so he dropped out to pursue a career in music. As you can imagine, his parents weren't thrilled.
Rick spent the first six years back in the early 70’s trying to get a band up and running but had several failures. He finally found the right mix of talent and The Cars were formed in 1976 in Boston. They were officially touring and putting out albums beginning in 1978. During this process, they found that Rick had a lot of talent in the production studio and he ended up producing records for other artists. By the way, his first album titled: “The Cars,” stayed on Billboard’s Top 200 Chart for over two years.
The Cars disbanded in 1988 after a great ten-year run. Rick went on to dabble in putting out some solo work, but he had other passions as well including art and poetry. He released a book of poetry in 1993. In 2012, Ocasek released Lyrics and Prose, a complete collection of lyrics from his solo and Cars' albums. The book also contains prose and poetry never set to music, as well as previously unpublished photographs and artwork. There were many offers during these years for The Cars to begin touring again but Rick wasn’t interested; he did tell the other band members to go ahead and he recommended a good lead singer to replace him. Going out on the road again touring had no interests to him.
Rick was married three times, once when he was very young, and they had two boys. He divorced her in 1970. He then remarried (Suzanne), in 1971, and they had two boys. During filming of the music video for the Cars' song "Drive" in 1984, Ocasek met 18-year-old supermodel Paulina Porizkova — while he was still married to Suzanne. Five years later he divorced her after 18 years of marriage and married Porizkova. They had two boys so at this point Rick had six sons. His oldest son became a music artist as well and his music was featured in the movie: Pretty Woman. After around 29 years of marriage, he and Porizkova separated in 2018. It was a friendly separation and they were still doing things together up until Rick passed away.
Rick’s music was amazing, but the bottom line is that he was an artist with many creative outlets. He dreamed of playing in a band and he got to live his dream for ten years, but after this, he wanted to express himself in other ways. If you're having trouble remembering what Rick looked like, picture Howard Stern as they could've been brothers; they even sounded alike. :)
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