Rocker Tom Verlaine of Television fame dead at 73 following ‘brief illness’

Rocker Tom Verlaine, who rose to fame as singer and guitarist for Television, has died aged 73.

His sad passing after a “brief illness” was confirmed to Rolling Stone on Sunday morning (AEDT) by Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Patti Smith.

“He died peacefully in New York City, surrounded by close friends. His vision and his imagination will be missed,” she wrote.

Born Thomas Miller in 1949, he was inspired to learn guitar after hearing the Rolling Stones’ 1966 hit 19th Nervous Breakdown and co-founded punk group Television in 1973 alongside guitarist Richard Lloyd.

In his youth, Verlaine had a keen interest in poetry and took on his stage name as a tribute to French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine.

Best known as the lead singer and guitarist for the band, Verlaine once attributed his iconic sound to the fact that he never played along to records while learning.

“I never played guitar along with records, so I never learned all the speed licks everybody gravitates to when starting out,” Verlaine told a Guitar Player interviewer in 2005

“I know 19-year-old guitarists who can play Danny Gatton solos note-for-note. They don’t really know what notes they’re playing, but they do them flawlessly.”

He dated poet and fellow musician Patti Smith after meeting in the 1970s while living in New York, where both were active in the growing punk scene.

Television released two albums, Marquee Moon and Adventure, before splitting in 1978, at which point Verlaine pursued a solo music career. The band briefly reunited in 1990.

Verlaine was also part of the Million Dollar Bashers, a supergroup made up of Verlaine, Sonic Youth musicians Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, Bob Dylan bassist Tony Garnier, guitarist Smokey Hormel, and keyboardist John Medeski.

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