Ric Ocasek

Ric Ocasek
Ric Ocasek of The Cars in 2009 Photo: Adanne Osefoh
Background information
Birth name	Richard T. Otcasek
Born	March 23, 1949 (1949-03-23) Baltimore, Maryland United States
Genres	Rock, powerpop, New Wave, protopunk, garage rock,
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, music producer, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass
Years active	1966–present
Labels	Elektra, Reprise, Rhino
Associated acts	The Cars
Website	www.ricocasek.com
Notable instruments
Dean Cadillac BC Rich Fender Jazzmaster

Ric Ocasek (born Richard T. Otcasek on March 23, 1949 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American musician and music producer. He is best known as lead vocalist (along with Benjamin Orr) and rhythm guitarist for the rock band, The Cars.

Ocasek's father, a computer analyst for NASA, was transferred to Cleveland, Ohio when he was 16. After graduating from high school in Cleveland, Ocasek then attended Bowling Green State University near Toledo, Ohio. He is married to model Paulina Porizkova.

Early career

In the early 1970s, Ric Ocasek played in the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young influenced folk band Milkwood with friend Ben Orzechowski (Ben Orr). The band released one album in 1972 called How's the Weather under the Paramount record label. The album had no success and quickly disappeared shortly after release, and Milkwood split up. It was then that Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr formed up their new band Rick & the Rabbits. In 1974 Ric and Ben played as a duo at a south shore Boston Ground Round Restaurant. Until a company V.P. stopped in one night and said they were not a family friendly entertainment, and had to let them go .

The Cars

Ric Ocasek's breakout success was as a founding member of the new wave band Cap'n Swing, later re-named The Cars, which had numerous hit songs from 1976 to 1988. He played rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals on many tracks, as well as playing keyboard instruments and bass. Ocasek was the principal songwriter of the band, and wrote nearly all of The Cars material, sharing credit on only a few songs with fellow bandmate Greg Hawkes as co-writer. During his time with The Cars, Ocasek developed a reputation as a successful producer, and took this role for many up-and-coming bands of differing genres including, but not limited to Weezer, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Nada Surf, No Doubt, Guided by Voices, Bran Van 3000, and Suicide, as well as some of The Cars albums and singles. In 2010, Ocasek reunited with the surviving original members of The Cars to record their first album in 24 years, titled Move Like This, which came out on May 10, 2011.

Solo career

The singer released his first solo album in 1982. Beatitude is a somewhat more experimental variation of The Cars' New Wave rock sound. A more synthesizer-heavy follow up, This Side Of Paradise, was released in 1986. A #15 hit single, "Emotion in Motion", accompanied the album.

The Cars disbanded in 1988, and he disappeared from the public eye for a couple of years, resurfacing in 1990 with Fireball Zone. One track, "Rockaway", enjoyed a brief stay on the charts, but his solo albums have seen disappointing sales, especially compared to his success with the Cars. He subsequently released other solo works throughout the decade, including 1993's Quick Change World, 1996's Getchertikitz (a collaboration with Suicide's Alan Vega comprising only beatnik poetry set to music, sound effects, etc.), and 1997's Billy Corgan-produced Troublizing (which Ocasek supported with a very brief tour, his first since leaving the Cars). In 2005, Ocasek released another album, Nexterday, to little fanfare, but positive reviews.

Producing

Ocasek has produced many records, both while working with The Cars and since then, such as Bad Brains' Rock for Light and Guided by Voices' Do the Collapse. His other production credits include Weezer's Blue Album & Green Album (both multi-platinum), Suicide, Romeo Void, Hole, Bebe Buell, No Doubt, Nada Surf, Irish folk-punk band Black 47, Bad Religion, Johnny Bravo, D Generation, The Wannadies, Possum Dixon, Martin Rev, Jonathan Richman, and, most recently, the 2006 album by The Pink Spiders titled Teenage Graffiti. He also produced a portion of the third Motion City Soundtrack album, Even If It Kills Me.

In other media

Ocasek wrote a book of poetry, 1993's Negative Theatre. It was at one time expected to be incorporated into an album and multimedia incarnation of the same name, but these plans were dropped abruptly. For many years Ocasek had a side hobby of making drawings, photo collages, and mixed-media art works which, in 2009, were shown at a gallery in his home town of Columbus, Ohio.

Ocasek had a cameo role in the John Waters feature film Hairspray, and had a bit part in the 1987 movie Made in Heaven in which he played a mechanic.

Ocasek stated in a 2005 interview in Rockline that he hated touring and it was unlikely that he would do so again. He also stated he would not be reuniting with The Cars again, but gave the okay to his former fellow bandmates to do so with Todd Rundgren replacing him on vocals (the resulting band is called The New Cars).

On April 17, 2006, Ocasek appeared on The Colbert Report and volunteered to put Todd Rundgren "on notice". He appeared again on the July 26, 2006, episode to cheers from the audience as he volunteered to lead a commando mission to "rescue" Stephen Jr., the baby eagle at the San Francisco Zoo named after Stephen Colbert. He also appeared again on April 18, 2007, in order to support his wife during her appearance on the show, after remarks that she found Colbert "extremely attractive". He has been mentioned many times in other episodes as well.

The Cars, with Ocasek, appeared on The Colbert Report on August 9, 2011, to promote their new album, Move Like This.

Personal life

Ocasek has been married three times; he married early in life, but divorced and was married to his second wife, Suzanne Ocasek in 1984. Ocasek was still married to Suzanne when he met model Paulina Porizkova during filming of the music video for The Cars' song "Drive" (directed by Timothy Hutton) later that same year. At that time, Porizkova was 19 years old and Ocasek was 35. He also stated he was bisexual in a 1986 interview, stating, "I like beautiful women. Tall, thin, beautiful women. Fat little ugly women. I like all kinds of women. I'm always attracted to the opposite sex. I'm attracted to both sexes, actually. But not only beautiful men -- I think I like weird men."

Five years after meeting, in 1989, Ocasek and Porizkova married. This was Ocasek's third marriage, and Porizkova's first. In 2009, the couple celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary and their 25th anniversary since they first met.

Ocasek has a total of six sons, two from each of his three marriages.

He and co-founder of The Cars, Benjamin Orr, were known to be close friends. Their friendship was commemorated in a song Ocasek wrote as a dedication to Orr upon his death in 2000 ("Silver", from Nexterday).

Discography

Solo albums

• Beatitude (1982 Geffen Records)
• This Side of Paradise (1986 Geffen Records)
• Fireball Zone (1991 Reprise Records)
• Quick Change World (1993 Reprise Records)
• Negative Theater (1993 Warner EU; European release only)
• Troublizing (1997 Sony Entertainment)
• Nexterday (2005 Sanctuary / Inverse)

Spoken word album

• Getchertikitz, a collaboration with Alan Vega (1996 Sound Effects)

Singles

Year	Song	Australia	Canada	US Hot 100	US MSR	US A.C.	US Dance	Album
1983	"Something to Grab For"	-	-	47	5	-	-	Beatitude
	"Jimmy Jimmy"	-	-	-	25	-	60
	"Connect Up to Me"	-	-	-	-	-	37
1986	"Emotion in Motion"	8	18	15	1	8	-	This Side of Paradise
	"True to You"	100	-	75	9	-	-
1991	"Rockaway"	-	46	-	11	-	-	Fireball Zone

Other appearances

Year	Song	Album
1991	"Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"	Simply Mad About the Mouse

See also

• The Cars

External links

• Official website
• Ric Ocasek VH1 artist page
• Ric Ocasek AOL artist page
• Ric Ocasek Billboard artist page
• Ric Ocasek Allmusic artist page
• Ric Ocasek at the Internet Movie Database