Link (http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/cramps-frontman-lux-interior-dies-1003938315.story)

Cramps frontman Lux Interior passed away today (Feb. 4th) at a Glendale, Calif., hospital due to a pre-existing heart condition, the band's publicist confirms to Billboard. He was 62.

The Cramps formed in 1976 and were part of the now legendary downtown New York punk scene. Their line-up shifted over the years but always included Lux and his wife, Poison Ivy. The band's rockabilly infused punk has been credited as an influence by bands like the White Stripes and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

Interior, whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser, was born October 21, 1946 in Ohio. He met Ivy in 1972 and started the band shortly thereafter.

The Cramps released fourteen albums over the course of their career. Their latest, 2004's "How To Make a Monster," sold 11,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Their best-selling album, 1984's "Bad Music for Bad People" has sold 95,000 copies.

:rip:

sad news. They are a great band. He'll be missed.

I remember seeing him in a clip with The Cramps in a documentary called 'Urgh!! A Music War" over twenty years ago. He was so decadent live, he had these tight leather pants only going up barely above the crotch and below the waisteline. I thought it was the sleaziest thing I'd ever seen, he was holding the microphone in his mouth and singing these psycho rockabilly songs. A few years later, I read more about him and his band, and thought, wow, that's rock and roll!! According to him, early rock and roll was just so decadent and trashy, that it was nothing like this sanitized version in the 50's that we'd been so used to hearing. It was horny and devilish, so obscene, and it was a total blast!! So I started realizing he was very cool after all. :cool: