Kevin Alexander Clark, the drummer who played Freddy “Spazzy McGee” Jones in the Jack Black comedy School Of Rock, has died at the age of 32. Clark was struck and killed by a motorist while biking in Chicago's Avondale neighbourhood in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Paramedics took Clark to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:04 a.m., the Chicago Fire Department and the Cook County medical examiner's office has confirmed.
Clark started playing drums when he was three years old, so had a decade of experience behind him by the time he auditioned for the 2003 movie School Of Rock, when he played Black Sabbath's Iron Man alongside the film's guitarist, Joey Gaydos Jr.
School Of Rock, directed by Richard Linklater, went on to become a huge commercial success, grossing $131 million globally, making it the most successful music-themed comedy of all time, until it was overtaken by Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015.
While Clark never made another film, he continued to play the drums, performing with local bands Dreadwolf, Funk It Let’s Jam and the Robbie Gold Band. His most recent band were Jess Bess And The Intentions, who played their first show at the weekend.
“They were unbelievably fantastic and they would’ve gone somewhere,” Clark's mother Allison tells the Chicago Sun Times. “He told his bandmates just yesterday: You know, this is finally the life I want to live. And we’re going to make it. You’re my musical family – my family – and we’re all going to make it."
“You know, we’re all really in shock. It was just this morning,” Clark adds. “He was just a 32-year-old kid. It doesn’t make sense. A lot of our jammer friends – mostly 65-plus – have lost their lives recently. So hopefully he’s up there jamming in the sky with them."
