DETROIT (WWJ) -- Poet and political activist John Sinclair, who became an icon of Detroit’s counterculture scene beginning in the 1960s, has died at the age of 82.
A native of Flint, Mich., Sinclair was well-known for his support of the Civil Rights movement, his efforts to legalize marijuana, and his work promoting local artists, including Detroit’s MC5, for which he served as manager.
"He was on the forefront of the marijuana movement, that's for sure," his representative Matt Lee told The Detroit News. "But I don't think people realized how knowledgeable he was in American music and he was a certified expert in all forms of American jazz and rhythm and blues."
Sinclair’s 1969 arrest and subsequent imprisonment for possession of marijuana drew out artists such as Bob Seger, Stevie Wonder, Yoko Ono and John Lennon to support him during the “Freedom Rally” protest and concert at Ann Arbor’s Crisler Arena 1971; an event which later inspired the Hash Bash.
In recent years, Sinclair had been in poor health, and he reportedly died of heart failure on Tuesday, April 2 at Detroit Receiving Hospital.