Ronnie Drew, the gravelly voiced folk singer and guitarist who founded the Irish group the Dubliners and also sang with the Pogues and other rock bands, died on Saturday in Dublin. He was 73.
Mr. Drew, who had throat cancer, died in St. Vincent's Private Hospital, his family said in a statement.
Known for his distinctive long white beard and deep voice, Mr. Drew and three other musicians -- Luke Kelly, Ciaran Bourke and Barney McKenna -- became the original members of the Ronnie Drew Group in 1962. Unhappy with the name, Mr. Drew changed it to the Dubliners, after the novel by James Joyce, which Mr. Kelly was reading at the time.
The group got started singing in Irish pubs, accompanied by Mr. Drew on Spanish guitar, which he learned while teaching English in Spain during the 1950s. He spent two stints with the Dubliners, from 1962 to 1974 and again from 1979 to 1995.
The Dubliners became widely known in Europe, as well as the United States, for bold versions of traditional Irish folk songs.
“You can take the hardest rock band on the earth and they sound like a bunch of girls next to the Dubliners," Bono, the lead singer of U2, once said of the group.
Two of the group's earliest hits, released in 1967, were folk songs: “Black Velvet Band," which describes the deportation of a tradesman to Australia, and “Seven Drunken Nights," a bawdy tale whose last two verses were considered too indelicate for public broadcast, leading to a ban by Irish radio. Regardless, the hits earned the band a spot on “The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1968.
Mr. Drew, a teetotaler in later life, was as well known in Ireland for his drinking antics and sharp quips as his music. Liam Collins, writing in The Belfast Telegraph on Tuesday, recalled a story told by Mr. Drew's son, Phelim, about the morning the singer stopped into an empty pub for a cocktail. The bar's only other patron looked at Mr. Drew and remarked, “I thought you were off the drink."
“I am," Mr. Drew replied, “but I have a gin and tonic every now and again. I find it helps me to mind my own business. Would you like one?"
Mr. Drew, who had throat cancer, died in St. Vincent's Private Hospital, his family said in a statement.
Known for his distinctive long white beard and deep voice, Mr. Drew and three other musicians -- Luke Kelly, Ciaran Bourke and Barney McKenna -- became the original members of the Ronnie Drew Group in 1962. Unhappy with the name, Mr. Drew changed it to the Dubliners, after the novel by James Joyce, which Mr. Kelly was reading at the time.
The group got started singing in Irish pubs, accompanied by Mr. Drew on Spanish guitar, which he learned while teaching English in Spain during the 1950s. He spent two stints with the Dubliners, from 1962 to 1974 and again from 1979 to 1995.
The Dubliners became widely known in Europe, as well as the United States, for bold versions of traditional Irish folk songs.
“You can take the hardest rock band on the earth and they sound like a bunch of girls next to the Dubliners," Bono, the lead singer of U2, once said of the group.
Two of the group's earliest hits, released in 1967, were folk songs: “Black Velvet Band," which describes the deportation of a tradesman to Australia, and “Seven Drunken Nights," a bawdy tale whose last two verses were considered too indelicate for public broadcast, leading to a ban by Irish radio. Regardless, the hits earned the band a spot on “The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1968.
Mr. Drew, a teetotaler in later life, was as well known in Ireland for his drinking antics and sharp quips as his music. Liam Collins, writing in The Belfast Telegraph on Tuesday, recalled a story told by Mr. Drew's son, Phelim, about the morning the singer stopped into an empty pub for a cocktail. The bar's only other patron looked at Mr. Drew and remarked, “I thought you were off the drink."
“I am," Mr. Drew replied, “but I have a gin and tonic every now and again. I find it helps me to mind my own business. Would you like one?"
