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Rick Froberg, the singer, guitarist, and visual artist best known for his work in Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes and Obits, died Friday night (June 30). His friend and frequent collaborator John Reis confirmed the news on Instagram. He was 55.

“Rick passed away suddenly last night from natural causes,” Reis wrote. “His art made life better. The only thing he loved more than art and rock n roll was his friends. He will forever be remembered for his creativity, vision and his ability to bring beauty into this world. I love you, Rick. I will miss you for the rest of my life.”

Born in Los Angeles, for years Froberg lived in Encinitas, California, where he played in several bands in the San Diego area. He formed the band Pitchfork with Reis as a teen and the two formed Drive Like Jehu with Mike Kennedy on bass and Mark Trombino on drum after Pitchfork disbanded in 1990. The band was active for four years—dissolving shortly after the release of their major-label debut 'Yank Crime' in 1994—but had an outsized influence on hardcore’s evolution into emo.

In the mid-1990s, Reis temporarily shelved Drive Like Jehu in order to concentrate on his other band, Rocket from the Crypt. By the end of the decade, Reis formed his own record label, Swami Records, and reunited with Froberg to form a new post-hardcore band called Hot Snakes. Between 2000 and 2004, Hot Snakes released three albums, including 'Suicide Violence' and 'Audit in Progress'. Following a hiatus, the group reunited for a fourth album, 'Jericho Sirens,' in 2018.

After moving to Brooklyn, New York in the early aughts, he founded the band Obits in 2006 with former Edsel guitarist Sorab Habibion. Their most recent album Die at the Zoo was released in 2021. Froberg has also played with the Last of the Juanitas and Thingy.

Froberg was also a talented visual artist who created artwork for all of his own bands as well as for Rocket from the Crypt and Reis' record label, Swami Records.

Two weeks before his death (June 14) he posted to Instagram that Hot Snakes was working on a new record and that it was “very near done.”