Johnny “Blackie Onassis” Rowan, longtime drummer of Urge Overkill during the 1990s has died. No cause of death was revealed. The band confirmed Rowan’s death on their social media pages.
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“Urge Overkill is saddened to report that Blackie has passed away,” read the band’s statement. “Please respect our privacy at this time. We are sending much love to his family and all his fans. We know he will be missed.”
Joining Urge Overkill in 1991, Rowan was the final piece of the trio, along with Nash Kato and Eddie “King” Roeser, and recorded on the band’s third album, The Supersonic Storybook, which included the track “Today Is Blackie’s Birthday.” Shortly after, the band landed a spot on Nirvana’s Nevermind tour in 1992 and even inspired fellow Chicago rocker, Liz Phair’s watershed debut, Exile in Guyville, with their Skull EP, “Goodbye To Guyville.”
On through the ’90s, Rowan, along with Kato and Roeser, broke through with follow-up albums, Saturation, in 1993 with radio mainstay “Sister Havana” and favorites “Erica Kane” and “Bottle of Fur,” and on through their 1994 cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” prominently featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in 1994.
Rowan remained with the band through their first major label release, Exit the Dragon, in 1995, which featured a track the drummer wrote, “The Mistake,” referencing his drug addiction. He was later arrested for heroin possession shortly after the release of Exit the Dragon, and after Roeser left the band in 1996, Urge Overkill disbanded.
Mostly removed from music since Urge Overkil’s break up, Rowan also appeared on Joe Roncetti’s song “Dead Friends” in 2016. In 2000, Rowan appeared on Kato’s debut solo album, Debutante, but the two lost touch afterward.
Kato and Roeser reunited the band in 2004 without Onassis and released their sixth album, Rock & Roll Submarine, in 2011 and Oui, released in 2022.
“I’m not Blackie Onassis because of my personal life,” said Rowan in 1995. “I’m Blackie Onassis because I drum in Urge. I like being Blackie Onassis. It’s like living in a musical wonderland.”
Photo by Bob Berg/Getty Images
