Biography:

Dennis Thompson (September 7, 1948 – May 9, 2024) was an American drummer known for playing with the 1960s–70s Detroit proto-punk/hard rock group MC5,^[1] which had a No. 82 US single with “Kick Out the Jams” and a No. 30 US album with the same name.

Thompson began playing drums by the time he was nine years old.^[2] Joining the MC5 by 1965,^[3] Thompson was later given the nickname “Machine Gun” because of his “assault” style of fast, hard-hitting drumming that sonically resembles the sound of his namesake Thompson machine gun (commonly referred to as a “Tommy Gun”). His drumming pre-figured and influenced punk, metal, and hardcore punk drumming styles.

After MC5 broke up in the early 1970s, Thompson was a member of the 1975–1976 Los Angeles–based supergroup The New Order, the 1981 Australia-based supergroup New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets. In 2001, he guested for Asmodeus X on the song “The Tiger” (St. Thomas Records).^[4]

His influences include Elvin Jones, Keith Moon and Mitch Mitchell, and Motown.^[5] In 2015, he described how his drumming technique had changed considerably over time, playing with “much less force and tucked in elbows, more wrist action and less arm action”.^[6]

Thompson was in the band DKT/MC5 with the surviving members of MC5, from 2003–2012. Later, he recorded two tracks for a new MC5 album scheduled for October 2022 release, although as of February 2023 the album has not yet been released.^[7]

Thompson suffered a heart attack in April 2024, and died in Taylor, Michigan, on May 8, 2024, at the age of 75.^[8] He was the final surviving member of the MC5.^[9]

Credits: