Walter Lure of The Heartbreakers dies at 71

Punk pioneer of The Heartbreakers – Walter Lure died on 22nd August at age 71. It was confirmed on a Facebook post from a club in LA called ‘The Starwood’. The post read “Walter Lure (April 22, 1949 – August 22, 2020) our dear friend has passed away. Walter was diagnosed with liver and lung cancer in July 2020, which spread rapidly and he died from complications related to the cancer at the age of 71, peacefully in the hospital, surrounded by family.”

Lure appeared on Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers album L.A.M.F back in 1977. The band then was Lure, Johnny Thunders, on the bass Billy Rath and on drums – Jerry Nolan. Lure left the band in ’78 and returned on occasion until ’91. Walter Lure later became something somewhat unpunk and became a stockbroker. Lure occasionally performed live and performed as live version of L.A.M.F with Tommy Stinson from the Replacements, Brother Wayne Kramer of the MC5 and New York’s loving drummer. Clem Burke. The performance was released as a live album in 2017.

The Heartbreakers played their first show in May 1975, just around the same time Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers arrived on the scene. Thunders said in a 1976 interview “There’s a new band.. they’re called Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. We might change our name to the Headbreakers and go visit them.” The band was referred as the name “Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers”

In an interview with Furious.com Lure was talking about The Heartbreakers: “I still play a lot of L.A.M.F. songs and I still think they go over well. Maybe we had a bit too many love songs about drugs but that was what we were doing then, unfortunately. It was considered shocking at the time and we wanted that shock image.”

Lure spoke about the sound of the original album wasn’t much to his liking  “We remixed that thing 100 times in four or five different studios and remastered the final mixes several times… It was only when the masters were sent to the pressing plant to be put on vinyl did the sound come back as muffled and lifeless. Later on in the ’80s, they remastered and released it again… Those versions sounded great and might have kept the band together longer if they came out like that in 1977. C’est la vie.”

Rest In Peace, Walter Lure.