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Tom Verlaine, lead singer and guitarist for the rock band Television, passed away in Manhattan on Saturday after a “brief illness.” He had 73 years of age.
Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of fellow musician Patti Smith, broke the news of Verlaine’s passing.
“My dear Tom. “The love is immeasurable and eternal,” Paris Smith posted on Instagram. “My heart is too intensely full to share everything right now, and it is too difficult to find the words.”
According to the Guardian, Patti Smith and Verlaine dated when they were “in the emerging New York Punk scene.”
The two worked together frequently throughout the years, including co-authoring a 1978 poetry collection titled “The Night.”
Thomas Miller, the punk rocker, took his stage name from the French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine.
Verlaine, a native of New Jersey, and his high school classmate Richard Hell established Television in New York City in 1973, after their previous band, The Neon Boys, split in the same year.
In 1977, the band released their debut album, Marquee Moon, which Verlaine also produced.
Television disbanded in 1978 and remained on hiatus until their 1992 reunion. The band has toured intermittently since 2001.
In October of 2022, the band toured with 80s rock icon Billy Idol in the United Kingdom.
Numerous music industry figures have paid respects to the punk rock hero.
“This was a time when everything seemed possible,” Patti Smith wrote on Instagram with a photo of two young people. Tom bids farewell from the Omega.
“Tom Verlaine is among the finest rock musicians of all time. He had an enormous impact on John and my playing style. Flea, bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, tweeted, “Fly on Tom.”
“RIP Tom Verlaine. “Along with Patti Smith’s Horses, Marquee Moon is one of, if not THE best New Wave album of the 1970s punk era,” the official Twitter account of the band Simply Red stated.
“I have lost a hero…. You exposed me to an universe that turned my life on its head. I am eternally grateful.’ – Michael Stipe,” the official Twitter of REM posted in tribute of Verlaine, quoting its lead singer.
Billy Idol stated, “He created incredible music that greatly influenced the US and UK punk rock scenes in the 1970s. RIP.”
»Rock band Television’s frontman Tom Verlaine passes away at age 73«