Grant Hart

Grant Vernon Hart (March 18, 1961 – September 13, 2017) was an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-songwriter for the punk rock band Hüsker Dü.

Hart formed Hüsker Dü in 1979 with Bob Mould and his friend Greg Norton.

The band's early material had them lumped in with the hardcore movement of the early 1980s.

The band members received help from their parents in their early days.

In Hart's case, his mother let him use the copier machine at the credit union where she worked to make show flyers, and the band added $2,000 to an existing loan at the credit union to release the band's first single, "Statues," on their own label Reflex Records in 1981.

Success existed on a small scale for the band; by 1982 Hart was unemployed and relied on support from friends and family.

Hüsker Dü's music became more accomplished and melodic over time.

By late 1982, Hart's drumming "rushed the music along more precisely than ever" and he and Mould, who traded vocal duties, were singing more tunefully.

While Mould was the band's primary songwriter, Hart began writing more songs.

Hart wrote two songs for 1983's Metal Circus EP, the "perversely sing-along" "Diane" and the "impassioned speed-pop gem" "It's Not Funny Anymore."

Hüsker Dü's more melodic take on hardcore struck a chord with college students, and various tracks from Metal Circus, particularly Hart's "Diane," were put into rotation by dozens of campus radio stations across the US.

Hart was tagged by observers as the "hippie" of the group due to his long hair and his propensity to drum with bare feet; biographer Michael Azerrad additionally noted that "the wide-eyed sincerity of his songs was far more San Francisco '67 than New York City '77," which contrasted with Mould's "incisively bitter" songs.

As Hart and Mould developed as musicians and songwriters, an unspoken tension and competition arose in the band between them.

Tensions were heightened when Mould demanded, starting with 1984's Zen Arcade, that the band's records contain individual songwriter credits.

In spite of the creative tensions, Hüsker Dü garnered critical acclaim with the release of Zen Arcade and subsequent albums.

Michael Azerrad stated that by 1985's Flip Your Wig "the two songwriters were trying their level best to outdo each other, and with spectacular results" Hüsker Dü had left the hardcore genre behind, which caused some discomfort with their label at the time, SST Records.

In one interview, Hart hinted that SST thought Hüsker Dü were "soft" because they stayed in motels while touring and occasionally wrote happy songs.

Hart elaborated, "We don't have to convince the world that we're suffering to convince them that we're artists... There's nothing wrong with being happy."

Hart designed most of Hüsker Dü's album covers, as well as the album cover for The Replacements' Hootenanny.

In 1986, Hüsker Dü became one of the first key bands from the American indie scene to sign with a major label, inking a deal with Warner Bros. Records.

However, tensions within the band worsened after signing the deal.

Hart became addicted to heroin following the band's tour behind their major label debut Candy Apple Grey in 1986; he was also (incorrectly) diagnosed as HIV-positive in the middle of that year.

Mould and Hart were feuding openly about Hart's drug use and creative conflicts, with Hart accusing Mould of ensuring he could not have more than 45 percent of the songs on each of the band's albums.

The band dissolved after a show in Columbia, Missouri, in 1987.

Hart was trying to quit heroin by using a supply of methadone, but the bottle had leaked.

Hart played the show, but Mould and Norton were concerned that Hart would soon be suffering from withdrawal and thus would be unable to play the next few shows.

While Hart insisted he could perform, Mould had already canceled the dates.

After the band's breakup in 1988, he released his first solo album Intolerance before forming the alternative rock trio Nova Mob, where he moved to vocals and guitar.

His solo career became his main focus after the dissolution of Nova Mob in 1997.

As the co-songwriter of Hüsker Dü, Hart's songs (such as "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill" and "Turn on the News") received praise from critics and contemporaries.

His vocal style, in contrast to that of Hüsker Dü bandmate Bob Mould, had a more measured and melodic delivery.

His choice of lyrical themes, which ranged from teenage alienation in "Standing by the Sea" and the depiction of a murder in "Diane," to playful story-telling in "Books About UFOs," helped to expand the subject matter of hardcore punk.

Hart died on September 13, 2017, of complications from liver cancer and hepatitis C.

Grant Hart was born in South St. Paul, Minnesota, the youngest child of a credit union employee and a shop teacher.

Hart described his family as a "typical American dysfunctional family [...] Not very abusive, though. Nothing really to complain about."

When Hart was 10, his older brother was killed by a drunk driver.

Hart inherited his brother's drum set and records; he soon began playing in a number of makeshift bands as a teenager.

Hart met Bob Mould while working at a record store called Cheapo Records, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mould, then a college freshman, would buy marijuana from Hart.

At first Hart dismissed Mould as "an upstater pretending to be a Manhattanite," but the two soon became friends.