John Kezdy, the lead singer of the Chicago punk rock band The Effigies who later became an attorney and prosecutor in Illinois, died on Saturday. He was 64.
Kezdy died three days after being critically injured when his bicycle collided with a stopped delivery truck in the northern Chicago suburb of Glencoe, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The delivery vehicle had its hazards light flashing, Andrew Perley, deputy chief of the Glencoe police department, told the Chicago Sun-Times. Kezdy did not brake and continued pedaling before hitting the vehicle, Perley said.
Kezdy was the lead singer of The Effigies during the 1980s before taking up law. The Effigies formed in Chicago in 1980 and released five studio albums, WGN-TV reported.
“He was a unique individual,” Paul Zamost, a member of The Effigies, told the television station.
Kezdy formed the group after dropping out of the University of Wisconsin, the Sun-Times reported. The ban recorded three albums of original songs, including “Body Bag,” according to the newspaper.
The group toured with Hüsker Dü, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Toy Dolls, Naked Raygun and once opened for Run-DMC, the Sun-Times reported.
Zamost said the band had gotten back together and was completing a new album, according to the newspaper. They were scheduled to rehearse the night Kezdy was injured.
After leaving the stage, Kezdy earned a law degree from Northwestern University and embarked on a long career as an attorney and as a member of the Illinois Attorney General’s office.
“John was a principled guy. I admired him for sticking to his guns about everything,” Chicago musician, record producer and audio engineer Steve Albini told the Tribune. “He was one of the first people in the music scene to welcome me inside the circle and introduce me to a lot of people who were part of that early groundbreaking scene when I moved to Chicago.”
Kezdy was wounded in July 2022 at the Highland Park Parade mass shooting, WGN reported.
The crash is under investigation by the North Regional Major Crash Assistance Team, according to the Tribune.
