Greg Brown, a musician best known for being a founding member of the rock group Cake, has passed away following a brief illness. He was 56 years old.
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The band took to Instagram earlier this week to confirm the news. “It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of Greg Brown’s passing after a brief illness. Greg was an integral part of CAKE’s early sound and development.”
Brown’s former bandmates added, “His creative contributions were immense, and his presence—both musical and personal—will be deeply missed. Godspeed, Greg.”
Former Weezer bandmate and collaborator of Brown, Matt Sharp, also took to Instagram to pay tribute to the late guitarist.
“It’s beyond my capacity to put together the right words to describe his beautiful, beautiful soul,” Sharp wrote. “Our partnership, however brief, had lifetime’s worth of love, tenderness and heartbreak. We had a mutual understanding of each other’s imperfections and a mutual admiration for how we both tried to not let those imperfections get the best of us and stop us from moving forward.”
The guitarist started Cake alongside John McCrea, Vince DiFiore, Frank French, and Shon Meckfessel in 1991. He wrote Cake’s hit song “The Distance” for the group’s second album, “Fashion Nugget.” However, he left the group in 1997.
Following his departure from Cake, Brown joined Deathray, providing backup vocals and lead guitar. He collaborated with Sharp for the 2003 EP, Puckett’s Versus the Country Boy. He released a solo EP in 2023.
Greg Brown Previously Opened Up About His Departure From Cake
During a 2021 interview with Billboard, Brown reflected on his decision to leave Cake after nearly a decade.
“I might have told you one thing back when I was 27 years old, and I left hot-headed and mad about what I considered to be irreconcilable personality problems or whatever,” he said. “As 51-year-old me, I see a much larger context of what was going on in my life.”
He then said, “Rather than get into all of it, I would just say there was a lot of turmoil at the time, and I felt like leaving Cake would be a decision that would be good for my health.”
Xan McCurdy, who replaced Brown, also spoke out about the late musician’s departure from the band.
“There’s still a kind of kernel of Greg Brownness that I bring,” he noted. “Whether it’s intentional or not. But there will never be anybody like Greg Brown. He is a total authentic original and a hardcore talent, and really built that group.”
However, he pointed out there are some “unintended consequences” of being Cake’s guitarist. “I makejokes to my friends all the time,” McCurdy said. “Like if I play in another band as a side thing, I’m like, ‘Look at this, I’m playing a chord! I haven’t played a chord in six years.”