The Boomtown Rats founding member Garry Roberts dead at 72

Garry Roberts, the founding member and lead guitarist of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats, has died. He was 72.

The band’s social media page posted a statement on Wednesday following the passing of its founding member.

“It is with very great grief that the members of The Boomtown Rats announce the death this morning of Garry Roberts, our friend and guitarist.”

According to the BBC, Roberts led the group to settle on the final name of the band that was previously The Nightlife Thugs.

“On a clear Spring evening in 1975, in a pub in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, Garry became THE founding member of what turned out to be a great rock’n’roll band, driven largely by that sound of his, a storm of massive considered noise that punched out from his overtaxed amplifiers; and which animated not just the rest of the group but audiences he played to around the world,” the statement continued.

The official Twitter account for The Boomtown Rats also remembered the legendary guitarist.

“R.I.P. Garry Roberts, the legend, founding member and guitarist of The Boomtown Rats. A man who will be missed, a friend who will be remembered, a sound that will never be forgotten.”