Keith Levene, the innovative guitarist who was a founding member of both The Clash and Public Image Ltd, died from liver cancer on Friday (11/11). He was 65. The news came via his partner, Kate Ransford, who wrote on Twitter, "My beloved partner who passed away at our home on 11/11/22 peacefully, painfree ,cosy n well loved .he was an iconic guitarist and composer my best friend , my love , my everything , I love you to the moon."
Born in London on July 17, 1957, Levene was an avid rock fan as a teenager and at 15 worked as a roadie for Yes on the Close to the Edge tour. A few years later he co-formed The Clash with Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, and helped convince Joe Strummer to leave his band, The 101ers, and join The Clash. He grew dissatisfied with Clash and ended up being fired by the band before they released any music. He was also briefly in The Flowers of Romance before forming Public Image Ltd with John Lydon, Jah Wobble and Jim Walker in early 1978 not long after The Sex Pistols broke up.