RIP John Berry of the Beastie Boys

[JKL2000]

This is kind of weird, but while I'm not a fan of Beastie Boys at all, I went to school with Mike D from Beastie Boys (back then he was Mike Diamond, a nerdy kid a couple of years younger than me). I knew one of his older brothers fairly well, and they had an even older brother. But I never knew that John Berry was a member of Beastie Boys early on - he went to my school too and I had a couple of classes with him. He was super-quiet. I don't think he ever opened his mouth in either class, and they were small classes - maybe 15 kids in each (this was 12th grade, so 1980-81). He was one of the very first "punks" I'd ever seen, and most of us didn't try to engage him because he just seemed like he had zero interest in being there at school.

Very sad and strange that two of the Beastie Boys have died so young - haven't yet heard anything about the cause of death in John's case.

This photo of John is right outside our school: