John Berry, a founding member of the Beastie Boys and the person responsible for the band's name, died Thursday at age 52 in Danvers, Mass.
Berry suffered from frontal lobe dementia and his health had been in decline for years, his stepmother Louise Berry told the Associated Press.
His father, John Berry III explained that his son met future bandmate Mike Diamond when they were classmates at New York's Walden School. The band, which was formed in 1981, was originally comprised of Diamond, Berry, Adam Yauch (who died in 2012) and Kate Schellenbach.
The Berry family loft on Manhattan's Upper West Side was often the site of the nascent band's practice sessions and early gigs.
Berry left soon after contributing guitar work to their first EP, 1982's Polly Wog Stew, which reflected the band's original punk sound. But he didn't share the same aspirations for larger success as his bandmates. He wasn't "up for that rigor," noted his father. He was replaced by Adam "Ad Rock" Horovitz, who would become a member of the permanent trio.
However, the band remembered Berry's contribution when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, giving him — and his family's loft — credit for those early years.
The Berry family is planning a memorial service later this year.
Contributing: The Associated Press
