Ric Ocasek of The Cars - Dead at 75 - His Life - His Guitars

Ric Ocasek 2018

Ric Ocasek was born as Richard Theodore Otcasek. He is best known for his work with the popular New Wave band, The Cars. Their music featured Ocasek's unique voice, his guitar, and synth playing. The Cars remained as a group from 1978 through 1988 when they disbanded.

2018 The Cars
Inducted To
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

It was only little over a year ago that The Cars were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April on 2018.

Richard Otcasek 1963

Otcasek grew up and went to school in Baltimore, Maryland. At age 16 his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from high school in 1963, he briefly attended Antioch College and Bowling Green State University, but dropped out to pursue a career in music.

In 1965, Otcasek met future Cars bassist, Benjamin Orr after seeing Orr performing in a band at a local musical variety program.

A few years later, the two guys reconnected and eventually started their own band that performed for events in Athens, Ohio, near the Ohio State University.

Orr and Otcasek in Milkwood

Within a few years Otcasek and Orr moved to Boston, which had a thriving music scene. This coincided during the time when Crosby, Stills, and Nash were popular. Orr and Ocasek created a band they called Milkwood to play music in that harmony style and in 1973 released one album.

Some of The Cars songs were first written around this time when they were performing as an acoustic duo.

Cap'n Swing

Later they got together with a bass player and a drummer and put together a demo tape as a band called Cap’n Swing. The demo was rejected, and the drummer, and bass player were rejected as well.


The great thing that came out of Cap’n Swing occurred when a new guitarist, Elliot Easton, and new keyboard player Greg Hawkes joined the group. Orr took over duties as the bass player, and eventually David Robinson joined the group as their drummer.

The Cars - 1976

In 1976 the band christened themselves as The Cars. Ric changed his stage name to Ocasek. He was the tall, slender guy, with coal black hair that played rhythm guitar, and sang many of their songs.

The Cars

The Cars were at the forefront of late 1970's guitar-oriented rock which merged with the new synthesizer-oriented pop that was just becoming popular and flourished in the early 1980s. The Cars sound was heavily synthesizer influenced.

The Cars MTV video
 Since You've Been Gone

Much of their success was due to the popularity of MTV, which at the time featured non-stop videos of popular and new talent that was promoted by the MTV VJ's.

1980 Rolling Stone Cover
The Cars

Within two years The Cars were named “Best New Artist” in a Rolling Stone readers poll.

In 1984 the group won “Video of the Year” for their song and video “You Might Think”. This was at the first MTV Video Music Awards.

The Cars debut album

Their self-titled debut album sold over six million copies and appeared on the Billboard 200 album chart for 139 weeks. Though the band broke up in 1988, by 2001, The Cars had sold over 23 million albums just in the United States.

In 1988 Ocasek announced he was sick of touring and a reunion would never happen.

Sadly Benjamin Orr died in 2000 from pancreatic cancer.

The New Cars - 2006

In 2005 Easton and Hawkes put together a spin-off band, The New Cars, and were joined by Todd Rundgren.

The surviving members did briefly reunite in 2010 to record the album “Move Like This” which was released the following year. They did follow up with a short tour to promote it.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert

The last performance of The Cars would be in 2018 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

 Ocasek developed a reputation as a successful record producer during his time with The Cars.

After The Cars disbanded, he was sought out by new artists to produce their projects. He produced recordings for quite a few Gen-X bands, including Weezer, Bad Religion, Hole, Romeo Void, Possum Dixon, The Cribs, and Bebe Buell among others.

Beatitude - Ric Ocasek

Ric Ocasek produced also two solo albums. Beatitude came out in 1982, followed by This Side of Paradise.

He also published a book of his poetry.  Ocasek was also an artist, displaying his paintings and drawings and some of his shows.

He was married three times, and had six sons, some of whom went into the music business.

Ocasek and Paulina Porizkova

At the time of his death he was separated from his wife of 28 years, Paulina Porizkova. She was an 18 years modelling sensation when he first met her in 1984 on the set of a video that The Cars were filming.

Ocasek was found dead in his New York City townhouse on September 15, 2019, by his estranged wife Paulina Porizkova when she was bringing him coffee.

Reports say that Ocasek had suffered from hypertension, emphysema, and cardiovascular disease, and was recuperating from recent surgery. His death was ruled from natural causes.

Ocasek with 70's SG

Throughout his career Ocasek used quite a variety of guitars. Ric Ocasek first guitar in The Cars was an early 1970's Gibson cherry SG with a Harmonica bridge. It had replacement DiMarzio pickups. The guitar was later repainted to be black with red pinstripes sometimes between the first and third album.

Ocasek with '62 SG

Ric also had a red 1962 SG that had a sticker near the bottom strap button. It had stock pickups. Ric used this one later on his solo recordings

Ocasek with '74 Jazzmaster

One of Ocasek's earliest guitars was a 1974 Fender Jazzmaster. He used this on "My Best Friend's Girl" off of The Cars first album. Eventually it was repainted pink. In the early 1980's it was fitted was a new bridge made by Gibson, or Gibraltar. The Jazzmaster was also used on "Shake It Up".

Ocasek with Dean Caddilac

Ocasek is seen in a number of concert videos playing a white Dean Caddilac. It is rumored that it was ordered by Elliot Easton from the Dean catalog. Easton had signed an endorsement with the Dean Company in 1979. It was used by Ocasek on The Cars first album tour. The guitar was thrown across the stage during a show, and subsequently rebuilt into a three pickup Japanese Flag graphic configuration.

Ocasek with Fender Jaguar

Ric was also fond of using a Fender Jaguar. This guitar was found at a pawn shop by Elliot Easton, who purchased it for $80 in 1980. Those guitars were not popular back then since they were considered 'surf guitars'. It was used on virtually every recording by The Cars. Ocasek preferred it's clean sound. He had it repainted, and took it on tour. Later on it was a studio instrument at Ocasek's facility, and used by Weezer, when he was recording their Blue Album.

Ocasek with BC Rich Perfect Bich 10

Ocasek can be seen using a B.C. Rich Perfect 10 Electric 10 String Guitar. This was a very well made instrument with neck-through body, and constructed of AAA quilted North American maple. The top four string are double coursed, like on a 12 string, with the third and fourth strings paired in octaves. The bottom two strings are single.


The headstock has six tuning machines, and four grommets to hold to additonal strings, which have their four tuning pegs at a cutaway section on the guitars base.

Les Paul Special

Ocasek started using a Gibson Les Paul Special Double Cutaway sometime around 1979 to 1980, and continued using it through his 1990's solo career.

Gibson ES 335

Sometime around 1985 Ric started using a black Gibson ES-335 with The Cars, and on his solo album.

Ocasek with Les Paul Jr.

During the 1979 Candy-O tour, Ric was using a 55' Les Paul Jr. for some songs. This guitar had a single P-90 pickup in the bridge position.

Ocasek with 1950's Telecaster

Ric owned a butterscotch blonde mid 50's Telecaster with a white pickguard. He did not play it often with The Cars. He loaned to Weezer while recording their 1995 debut Blue Album.

Ocasek with 1954 Stratocaster

In a video Ocasek can be seen playing either an original 1954 or a reissue 1954 Stratocaster. Ric owned at least 2 other strats, a black on black 1977-1979 model, and a Black & White one that was smashed in the "True To You" video from his solo career.

1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom

Ocasek referred to another guitar he owned as the fretless wonder. This was a 1954 Gibson Les Paul Special with a black finish, gold hardware and two P-90 pickups. He stated that he liked its distorted sound when played through his 50 watt Marshall amp.

Ampeg V-4 Guitar amplifier

Ric Ocasek preferred only two amps during his career with The Cars. One was an Ampeg V-4. He says he liked it's midrange sound. This was a 100 watt guitar amp, in a head only format. It had internal spring reverb.

Marshall JCM 50

Ocasek used a Marshall JMP 2203 50 watt JCM model, which was very popular during the 1980's, and used by many bands.

The Cars were one of the first synthesizer based bands. The keyboards were mostly played by Greg Hawkes, but Ocaseck doubled on keys for some songs, and certainly in the studio.

Their sounds emanated from a variety of synths that were popular at the time, including Sequential Circuits Prophet synthesizers, and a Roland Jupiter 8.

The group relied on a couple of Korg synthesizers including a Korg Lambda, and a MiniKorg 700.

Privately Ocasek would work out songs using these synths, and some small Casiotone keyboards. For home recording he utilized a lot of drum machines including the Linn LM-1 drum computer, some older Roland units, and even an old Univox rhythm machine.

The Cars Albums

The Cars recorded six top selling LP's that include The Cars (1978), Candy-O (1979), Panorama (1980), Shake It Up (1981), Heartbeat City (1984), Door to Door (1987), plus their final LP recorded to promote their reunion,  Move Like This (2011).

Click on the links under the pictures for sources. Click on the links in the text for more information.

©UniqueGuitar Publication (text only)