\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRichard Lloyd, the Television<\/a> co-founder and guitarist who helped bring a deft virtuosity to punk\u2019s stripped-down fury, has died at the age of 75.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLloyd\u2019s family said in a statement that the guitarist died Saturday morning at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. \u201cHis loving wife Sheila and his dog Willie Mays were with him at the end,\u201d his family said in a statement to Rolling Stone<\/em>, adding that Lloyd died from Cholangiocarcinoma, a bile duct cancer.<\/p>\n \n\tLloyd was diagnosed with bile duct cancer<\/a> in March 2026. According to a GoFundMe set up to help Lloyd cover medical expenses and other costs, the guitarist developed tumors in his liver, including one that was so close to a major blood vessels, his doctors were unable to operate and remove it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tTelevision were one of the most innovative bands of punk\u2019s first wave, thanks largely to the twin guitar attack of Lloyd and frontman Tom Verlaine<\/a>. While many of their peers perfected a loud, fast pummel of power chords, Lloyd and Verlaine (who died in 2023<\/a>) developed an intricate interplay of riffs and licks, and never shied from spiraling into headier realms inspired by jazz, art-rock, and even jam bands.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLloyd and Verlaine\u2019s stellar guitar work anchored Television\u2019s seminal debut<\/a>, Marquee Moon<\/a><\/em>, which was released in 1977. That album cemented Television\u2019s place in the punk pantheon, even though their output otherwise consisted of just two more albums, 1978\u2019s Adventure<\/em> and 1992\u2019s Television<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLloyd was born Oct. 25, 1951 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised largely in New York City. His first instrument was the drums, but he was fascinated by the guitar and decided to switch after a \u201challucinatory experience.\u201d \u201cMy drums lost all their color \u2014 like in the Wizard of Oz<\/em> in Kansas \u2014 and everything became grayscale,\u201d Lloyd wrote in his 2017 memoir, Everything Is Combustible<\/em>. \u201cThe drums didn\u2019t sound good anymore, and I heard a voice \u2014 an auditory hallucination that told me, \u2018You need to play a melody instrument.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n