Bay Area rock star who influenced Nirvana dies from heart attack

Bruce Loose, the iconic lead singer and bassist from the influential Bay Area punk band Flipper, died on Sept. 5 from a heart attack.

The musician — whose real name was Bruce Calderwood — was 66.

Word of his death was made public through various social media posts, including one on X from ex-wife Meri St. Mary.

“Well, my ex Husband + Father to Our Son has died due to heart attack. His words & bass live on in his band Flipper & Our Kid,” the post reads. “We had a lot of years together and apart. Glad he’s out of pain xo.”

The death reportedly occurred in Humboldt County.

Iconic punk rock band is back and trying ‘to do it bigger than ever’

Loose had been suffering from health problems for decades. He broke his back in the mid-’90s, the result of a car wreck that sidelined him from performing for a number of years. He also reportedly experienced a stroke in June..

He will be remembered as a ferociously talented frontman of one of the most influential punk bands in Bay Area history. Flipper was nothing short of a punishing presence on the live stage, one whose many admirers included the great punk rock icon Henry Rollins.

“They were just heavy,” the Black Flag legend reportedly wrote of Flipper in his memoir of the early ’80s punk scene, “Get in the Van.” “Heavier than you. Heavier than anything… . When they played they were amazing.”

Flipper’s most famous fan, however, was grunge-rock titan Kurt Cobain. The Nirvana singer-songwriter-guitarist was pictured wearing a Flipper T-shirt in the booklet for Nirvana’s third and final studio album, 1993’s “In Utero.” Cobain was also dressed in his Flipper best in the “Come as You Are” music video as well as when Nirvana first performed on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992.

Nirvana’s bassist — Krist Novoselic — was also a massive fan and would go on to perform as a member of the band from 2006 to 2009.

Nirvana and other notable acts of the era — from the Melvins to Jane’s Addiction — were drawn to Flipper’s heavy bass-driven sound, which utilized repetitive rhythms and distortion to great effect.

The band would hone that signature sound through numerous gigs and recordings beginning in 1979. Flipper was formed in San Francisco by a group of veteran members of the Bay Area punk scene — vocalist Ricky Williams, guitarist Ted Falconi, bassist Will Shatter and drummer Steve DePace.

Williams was soon replaced by Loose, who originally was known as “Bruce Lose” but later changed the name — as the story goes — because “he wanted to be less negative.”

While never achieving widespread commercial success, Loose and Flipper would make some truly seminal noise rock/punk recordings.

The band is best known for the landmark single “Sex Bomb” (not to be confused with the Tom Jones tune of the same name), which was released as a lengthy A-side of a single in 1981. The song was later rerecorded and released as the mighty closing number or group’s first studio album, 1982’s “Album – Generic Flipper.”

“Sex Bomb” was also later covered by R.E.M.

Flipper went on to release three more full-length studio albums, the most recent of which being “Love” in 2009.

The group has called it quits a few times, but has now been active — to one degree or another — since 2005. Loose left the band in 2015 due to health issues.