Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens sings during the USA Tennis Rock & Rally on April 28, 2003, at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Pat DiNizio, lead singer...
Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens sings during the USA Tennis Rock & Rally on April 28, 2003, at Rockefeller Center in New York City.
Pat DiNizio, lead singer and rhythm guitarist for New Jersey-based rock band the Smithereens, died Tuesday. He was 62. The band announced the news through social media this morning, although a cause of death was not provided.
Variery reports that DiNizio had been plagued by health problems in recent years; he apparently lost the use of his right hand in 2015 and incurred nerve damage following a pair of falls. The Smithereens had to cancel three tour dates earlier this year after DiNizio injured his back and neck in another fall.
The band, which was formed in Carteret, New Jersey, had a series of Sixties-influenced hits in the Eighties, including "A Girl Like You," “Blood and Roses,” “Strangers When We Meet,” “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” “In a Lonely Place” and “Only a Memory.”
Although the Smithereens hit the big time, DiNizio continued to live in New Jersey; in fact, he became a familiar face on the state's local music scene, often turning up at clubs and performing Beatles tunes at the Fest for Beatles Fans in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
“It beats picking up garbage, like I used to do," DiNizio told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. We’re self-employed—beyond the fact that we get to do what we love for living.”
The band's last studio album, 2011 (released that year), made