John Berry, American musician, Died at 52

  Music

John Berry died on May 20, 2016.

He was an American musician.

The Beastie Boys were an American rap rock band.

The group was formed in 1980, from New York City.

Throughout the group’s existence, the group consisted of Michael “Mike D” Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam “MCA” Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (vocals, guitar).

The band was first 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.

Theboys became a huge commercial success, recording a total of eight studio albums over 25 years, which collectively sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.

However, shortly after Berry left and was replaced by Horovitz.

Following achieving moderate local success with the 1983 experimental hip hop 12-inch “Cooky Puss”, Schellenbach dropped out and the group made a full transition to hip hop, releasing a string of successful singles.

John Berry passed away at 52 yrs old due to frontal lobe dementia.