Joe Strummer

Punk poet and outspoken activist Joe Strummer taught himself to play guitar and went on to front one of the greatest rock bands ever. The son of a globe-trotting British diplomat, John Graham Mellor was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1952, before settling in London as a kid. In the ‘70s, he traded art school for a squat and formed a pub-rock band called The 101ers before discovering punk. He formed The Clash in 1976, and their fierce first single, “White Riot,” came out a year later. It was a bellowing protest song set to a steady rock beat that gave a hint of the chaotic calls to arms the band would later deliver with politically charged punk songs like “Know Your Rights,” “London Calling,” and “Rock the Casbah.” When The Clash disbanded in 1986, after six riotous albums, Strummer turned his attention to soundtracking and acting in films. He returned to music in 1999 with a new band, The Mescaleros, which released a trio of albums that paired rock ‘n’ roll with world rhythms before Strummer died from a heart attack in 2002 at age 50.