TV on the Radio Bassist Gerard Smith Loses Battle With Cancer

Photograph by Josh Rothstein for RollingStone.com

TV on the Radio have announced that Gerard Smith, the band's bass player, died earlier today. The band made the announcement in a statement on its official website. Smith, 36, had been battling lung cancer in recent months. He was diagnosed shortly after the group finished recording its most recent album, Nine Types of Light.

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Smith had taken a leave of absence from the band while it embarked on a tour for the new album. Nevertheless, TV on the Radio have canceled a string of five shows scheduled for this week, including tonight's concert in Detroit, to mourn their friend and bandmate.

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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