Ric Ocasek (Greg Hawkes)

I've got Greg's album also on vinyl, shame it never came out on CD.

I think so. The late Benjamin Orr was the deeper of the two primary vocalists. There has been a Cars reunion of sorts. Elliott Easton and Hawkes teamed up with Prairie Prince (The Tubes) on drums, Kasim Sultan (Utopia) on bass and Todd Rundgren of guitar and vox; Ocasek and the original drummer were asked to rejoin and declined but gave their blessings to Easton & Hawkes that wanted play the old tunes. The result is The New Cars, which so far have only released a live album that is essentially a Cars greatest hits, with one or two new tunes tossed in. It's an OK effort but I'd like to hear more new material before I decide that this was a good idea or not.

In April 2000, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and subsequently hospitalized [1], yet continued to perform in concerts with the band Big People, at summer music festivals and state fairs. He reunited with all the former members of The Cars one last time in Atlanta, Georgia for an interview that was used in a Rhino Records video and DVD of a German concert performed in 1979, The Cars Live.

His final public appearance was on September 27, 2000 in a Big People concert in Anchorage, Alaska. Six days later, he passed away at his home in Atlanta, on Tuesday night, October 3, 2000, aged 53, surrounded by his fiancee Julie Snider, manager Billy Johnson and Big People band members Jeff Carlisi, Derek St. Holmes and Rob Wilson [2]. Big People still performs his classic Cars hits. Orr was also survived by his 5-year-old son, Ben, from a previous relationship.

OK, thanks. I have heard various things about this. Their voices are rather similar. Someone even told me that it was the Foreigner vocalist who sang on Drive! I never really believed that though...