Grant Hart, drummer, singer, and songwriter for the Minneapolis–St. Paul rock trio Hüsker Dü, has died at the age of 56, as confirmed by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and his former bandmate, Bob Mould. The cause was kidney cancer, with which Hart was diagnosed last year.
“The tragic news of Grant’s passing was not unexpected to me. My deepest condolences and thoughts to Grant’s family, friends, and fans around the world,” Hart’s Hüsker Dü bandmate, singer/guitarist Bob Mould wrote on Facebook early Thursday. “Grant Hart was a gifted visual artist, a wonderful story teller, and a frighteningly talented musician. Everyone touched by his spirit will always remember.”
Hüsker Dü’s third member, bassist Greg Norton, said Hart went into the hospital on Wednesday night and “it happened pretty quickly from there.”
“I heard he didn’t have to suffer a lot of pain, which is good,” said Norton, who praised Hart for “writing a lot of great music that is going to live on for years.”
As the drummer and one of two main singers and songwriters in Hüsker Dü, Hart influenced a generation of loud and noisy but melodic and lyrical rock bands that exploded into the mainstream after the Minneapolis trio acrimoniously broke up in 1988, including Nirvana, Green Day, the Pixies and Foo Fighters.
“What Nirvana did was nothing new; Hüsker Dü did it before us,” Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic once said in an interview.
