American musician, an influential punk guitarist during the late 20th century despite technically having only two albums to his credit. Quine is the co-founder of the punk rock ensemble, “Richard Hell and the Voidoids.”
Quinn’s parents encouraged him to study piano, an experience he remembers with distaste as his early interest was in Brazilian folk music. It was the emergence of rock ’n’ roll that determined his future career path. In 1958, he began to study the guitar, using a Fender Stratocaster that became his signature instrument. Frustrated by traditional methods, he finally learned how to play his own style in his own way. In 1961, while attending college in Indiana, he was the host of a campus radio program devoted to the blues, and he began performing with his first band. He went on to attend law school, and in 1965 discovered “The Velvet Underground,” a band that heavily influenced his musical development. He passed the Missouri bar in 1969 and promptly moved to San Francisco where he failed to pass the bar despite taking the exam twice. Moving on to New York City in August 1971 at the urging of a girlfriend, he spent the next three years writing tax law for Prentice Hall Publishing. Finding the work tedious and boring, he gave up any thought of a career in law and decided to make a living from his music.
While working in a film memorabilia shop in 1975, he met Richard Hell, a co-worker. Recruiting Marc Bell and Ivan Julian into their group, “Richard Hell and the Voidoids,” they released “Blank Generation,” which became a landmark album for the punk music era. He collaborated with many important musicians over the years but refused to work with anyone who mixed him off the final product, admitting to being an egomaniac. He went on to state that he is one of the “most compelling, appalling and universally hated figures in music history.” He purposely tries to keep his friendships to a minimum, stating that you can be a better friend that way. He did a few television commercials for Coke and Nike.
He performed with Lou Reed, Matthew Sweet, and Lloyd Cole, among others.
On May 31, 2004, grieving over the death of his wife in August 2003, he committed suicide at his NYC home.
Link to Wikipedia biography