Richard Lloyd, the guitarist whose interlocking lines with Tom Verlaine turned Television’s Marquee Moon into one of rock’s great conversations, has died at 75.
His family told Rolling Stone that Lloyd died Saturday morning at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from cholangiocarcinoma, a bile duct cancer. “His loving wife Sheila and his dog Willie Mays were with him at the end,” the statement said. The New York Times was first to report his death.
Lloyd was diagnosed in March, and an earlier GoFundMe campaign described tumors in his liver, one of them inoperable because it sat near a major blood vessel.
Born in Pittsburgh on October 25, 1951, and raised largely in New York, Lloyd started on drums before switching to guitar. He formed Television with Verlaine, bassist Richard Hell and drummer Billy Ficca, with Fred Smith later replacing Hell. The band became a fixture at CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, releasing its debut single, “Little Johnny Jewel,” in 1975.
Then came Marquee Moon, released on Elektra in 1977. In a scene built on three chords and a sneer, Lloyd and Verlaine played like two soloists who refused to take turns, trading jagged, chiming lines until neither part made sense without the other. Critics have long traced that blueprint through R.E.M., Sonic Youth and the Strokes, and it still sounds like the future of guitar music rather than its past.
Adventure followed in 1978, and a reunion album, Television, arrived in 1992. Lloyd left the band ahead of the 2007 tour marking the 30th anniversary of Marquee Moon.
His solo work deserved more ears than it got. Alchemy landed in 1979, and Field of Fire followed in 1986 after he got sober in 1984; his final solo album, The Countdown, arrived in 2018, a year after his memoir Everything Is Combustible. He also played sessions for Matthew Sweet and X’s John Doe.
Verlaine died in 2023, so Lloyd’s death closes the book on rock’s most celebrated twin-guitar partnership. There is no one left to answer either half of those duels.
Where to start is not a hard call. Put on Marquee Moon from the top and listen for who is playing what on the title track, then reach for Alchemy to hear Lloyd step out on his own terms.
Few guitarists ever made playing second sound so much like playing first.
