Pat DiNizio

Most folks knew Pat DiNizio for the dark, British Invasion-influenced college rock of his longtime group the Smithereens. Few might also remember his 1997 debut solo album. The beginning years of the new millennium found DiNizio in some unexpected roles, however -- serving as a programmer for satellite radio, undertaking a solo tour in which he played at people's homes, and most surprisingly, launching a failed but quite serious campaign for the Senate. Sadly, however, DiNizio experienced health issues and injuries in the latter half of the 2010s, and he died in 2017 at the ag...