The last living member of MC5 died Wednesday, marking the end of an era.
Dennis Thompson, the drummer for the iconic band, died at 75. His legacy lives on through his music and his son.
Born in 1969, at the height of the band’s popularity, Thompson’s son might have been raised in the surreal world of Rock and Roll.
However, Thompson didn’t know he had a son until he showed up at his doorstep two years ago.
“He looked at me, and he said, ‘Well, what took you so long, where the hell you’ve been?’” said Chris McNulty. “And I said, ‘I just found out, man. I didn’t even know anything about you.’”
McNulty was adopted at birth and, in his 50s, began searching for his biological parents through DNA ancestry finders.
“When I was informed who my father was, it was a little bit of a shock and a little bit of oh my gosh, this makes sense just because of my passion for music since I came out of the womb,” McNulty said.
McNulty spent the last two years getting to know his father.
“All the things that I’ve read about, all the myths and the legends and the stories, I’m hearing it come from my dad,” McNulty said. “All the while, I’m going, ‘Man, do I look like him.’”
Thompson suffered a heart attack in April and had been rehabilitated when he died Wednesday.
His passing comes just weeks after it was announced that MC-5 would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“‘It’s about time,’ is what he said,” McNulty said. “He was very humbled, he was very thankful and he was very sincere. I think all of them, at the end of the day, really just wanted the recognition that they deserved.”
McNulty plans to attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in October.