Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson, MC5 drummer and last member of the band, has died at the age of 75.

Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson, the longtime drummer for the iconic Detroit proto-punk band MC5, who earned his nickname for his rapidfire drumming style and combative rat-tat-tat sound, has died, TK reports. TK DETAILS It was 75.

Thompson joined the MC5 in 1965, just two years after guitarist Wayne Kramer and bassist Fred Smith co-founded the band to pursue their love of R&B, blues and garage rock with guitarist Billy Vargo and drummer Leo LeDuc . They were successful enough for each member to focus solely on music, playing enough gigs in Detroit on a regular basis to make MC5 a full-time job. When they shortened their name from the Motor City Five that same year, the MC5 kept their huge fan base and welcomed new listeners to the fold, drawing over a thousand people to their nightly shows. Among their early fans was Iggy Pop, who later called this early iteration of the band “a really fucking good big city cover band” in a Mojo interview.

After releasing a cover of Them's “I Can Only Give You Everything” as a single with their original number “One of the Guys” in 1967, the MC5 released another single the following year with “Borderline” and “Looking at You “. Pressings began to sell out rapidly, so the MC5, after releasing a third single, embarked on an East Coast US tour for bands such as Cream and the Stooges. The more they saw on the street, the more the MC5 were drawn to left-wing politics, eventually immersing themselves in the White Panther Party, a militant, anti-racist, politically active group co-founded by their manager, John Sinclair.

All of this coalesced to influence their debut album, 1969's legendary Kick Out the Jams, recorded live over two nights at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. In addition to the now-classic proto-punk title track, the album also features the standout single “Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa),” the Sun Ra-influenced “Starship,” and a sprawling cover of John's “Motor City Is Burning” by Lee Hooker praising the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967. The album also famously garnered controversy from Sinclair's left-field notes and the title track's iconic line “Kick out the jams , motherfuckers!”

While recording the album, Thompson was heavily inspired by Elvin Jones, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell and Motown. “'Kick Out the Jams' is actually a rock 'n' roll soul tune because the beat is a walking four—the snare drum is hit on all the fourth notes,” he later explained to Detroit Metro Times. “We just stepped it up. My job was to play above the tempo, keep it going, and then fill a hole here and there. Other bands really didn't play like that. I was dealing with Marshall stacks, no mics. While recording “Kick Out the Jams,” I think I broke two or three sticks. Back then, I was breaking 15 to 20 sticks per show. And I was using big sticks. I had to play so hard to be heard.”