Howie Pyro Illness: What Was Howie Pyro Suffering From?

D Generation Bassist, Howie Pyro, suffered a liver disease. He underwent a liver transplant in 2021 and was recovering in Los Angeles; he reportedly died from COVID-related pneumonia.

Born on June 28, 1960 in Whitestone, Queens, Pyro cut his teeth during the fecund 1970s punk explosion as the underage founder/bassist of The Blessed, choosing his stage name at 15, when he moving to hotbed of the city’s burgeoning punk scene in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

After releasing just one single — 1979’s “Deep Frenzy/American Bandstand” — Pyro moved on to form the group The Freaks, with future bandmate Malin serving as their roadie.

The pair teamed up in 1991 to launch DGen, a glam-punk-garage powerhouse whose self-titled debut was released on Chrysalis Records in 1994.

Their final major label album, 1999’s Through The Darkness, was produced by famed David Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti and released shortly before the band’s break-up.

It found Malin beginning to explore the more melodic avenues he would pursue in his long-running solo career on such metal-edge, head-bobbing tracks as “Helpless,” “Every Mother’s Son” and “Lonely.”