The news was subsequently confirmed in a social media post from Chris McNulty, Thompson's son, who had grown up unaware of the identity of his biological father but tracked him down via an ancestry website just two years ago. 

 

"I absolutely cherished the times we spent together," McNulty wrote. "Countless hours of just rapping about music, life, sports, and the state of the world. I will be forever grateful that I (along with my wife Becky) got to spend time with him and get to know him. I am deeply saddened by his passing and will miss him very much, although I do get a big smile on my face when I picture Dennis at the Pearly Gates, cat calling St. Peter: 'Kick Out The Jams or get off the stage.'"

 

The news of Thompson's death comes three months after the death of fellow MC5 founder, guitarist Wayne Kramer, and a month after the death of band manager John Sinclair. 

 

Thompson was born Dennis Tomich in Highland Park, MI, in 1948, and grew up 20 miles away in Lincoln Park. He became fascinated by percussion after playing his older brother's bongos, and developed a loose-limbed, percussive technique that gave him the band nickname "Machine Gun" and can be heard to best effect powering MC5 standouts like Kick Out The Jams, Sister Anne and the rattling Skunk (Sonicly Speaking). 

 

After playing on all three MC5 albums he hooked up with STOOGES guitarist and fellow Detroit icon Ron Ashton in the Los Angeles-based supergroup the NEW ORDER, whose sole, self-titled album, was released in 1977. Thompson and Ashton then went on to form NEW RACE with three members of Australian Detroitophiles RADIO BIRDMAN, but the band never released a studio album.

 

More recently, Thompson hooked up with original MC5 members Wayne Kramer and bassist Michael Davis to tour as DKT/MC5 in 2004 (Davis died in 2012), and in 2022 it was confirmed that he'd played on two tracks on a projected fourth album under the MC5 banner, Heavy Lifting. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin, while musicians featured on the recording included Slash, Tom Morello, LIVING CLOLOUR's Vernon Reid, ALICE IN CHAINS frontman William DuVall, Don Was, Kesha, Jill Sobule and more. Originally given a release date of October 2022, it has yet to surface.