Richard Lloyd, guitarist of punk band Television, dies aged 75 in Chattanooga

Richard Lloyd, guitarist and founding member of the punk-era band Television, died on Saturday, 7 November 2026, at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was 75. His family said in a statement that he died of cholangiocarcinoma, a bile duct cancer diagnosed in March 2026. Lloyd had said in August that he was fighting cancer, and a crowdfunding campaign had disclosed tumors in his liver, one of which could not be removed surgically. According to the family, his wife was with him at the end.

Two guitars in the New York punk scene

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on 25 October 1951, Lloyd attended high school in Manhattan and first learned to play drums before turning to guitar. After periods in Boston and Los Angeles he returned to New York, where he formed Television in 1973 with Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell and Billy Ficca. The group became one of the earliest punk acts to play CBGB, the Bowery club that had previously focused mainly on country and bluegrass. The New York Times described the twin-guitar attack of Lloyd and Verlaine as fierce yet intricate, with jagged rhythms and jazz-inflected chord structures. The paper noted that the band was often called a garage band, though that garage held far more sophistication than the simpler punk of the time. Hell left in 1975 and was replaced by Fred Smith, while other acts that emerged around CBGB included the Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads.

Marquee Moon and the solo years

Television released its debut album, Marquee Moon, in 1977, and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 107 on its 2023 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The 1978 follow-up, Adventure, came out on Elektra Records before the band split not long after. Lloyd released the solo album Alchemy in 1979, the first of seven solo records. Television reunited in the early 1990s and played Glastonbury Festival in 1992, and Tom Verlaine died in January 2023 at the age of 73.

In 2026 Lloyd told Guitar World that he had wanted to leave a mark on rock music. He said:

“I wanted to make a dent in rock history,”

Tributes from musicians

Musicians paid tribute after the announcement of his death. The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr wrote on Instagram:

“A seeker and finder and a true inspiration with and without the guitar.”

Lloyd Cole, who wrote on X that he had seen Television only once, also posted a tribute. The Guardian's 2005 review of a Television show had described Lloyd's guitar as the louder part of a lopsided sound mix, with crisp, crunchy chords and torrential solos.