MC5 is an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1964. T… Read Full Bio ↴MC5 is an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1964. The original band line-up comprised vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. Early success in and around Detroit led to the band name, MC5 being short for "Motor City Five". The band's radical left-wing political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk rock movement in the United States. Though Thompson is the only surviving original member of the band, the band's first three albums are regarded by many as staples of rock music, and their 1969 song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered. MC5 was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 2002, 2016 and 2018.

MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone magazine and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams. Their initial run was short-lived, though. In 1972, just three years after their debut record, the band came to an end. Often cited as one of the most important American hard rock groups of that era, their three albums are regarded by many as classics.

Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46. Smith also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 45. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.

In 2022, Kramer announced that a tour would take place that spring, and that a new MC5 studio album with producer Bob Ezrin would also be released later that year with original MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson playing on two tracks. In 2023, Kramer announced that the album would be released in the spring of 2024. Kramer died in February 2024, leaving Thompson as the only surviving original member of the band.