Written by: Alex Green

Scott Kempner, the charismatic co-founder of the Dictators and the Del-Lords has died..

The Bronx-born musician was 69.

Kempner was diagnosed with dementia in 2019 and he died from complications of the disease.

The guitarist formed the Dictators in 1974 along with Ross “The Boss” Friedman and Andy Shernoff. Their fuel-injected debut album The Dictators Go Girl Crazy, which came out the same year, is not only a classic punk rock record, it may very well be one of greatest albums of all time.

The Dictators had three albums under their belts by the time they split up and from there Kempner formed The Del-Lords, a no-nonsense rock and roll band whose Johnny Comes Marching Home record remains one of the best albums of the ’80s. The Del-Lords put out seven albums over the course of their career, including Based On A True Story and Lovers Who Wander.

“I saw them live in ’86,” SEM’s Matt Sloan recalls. “And the fact is, they were just a great American band. They played with muscle and belief and their songs were rugged anthems with huge choruses. They were one of the best live bands of all time.”

Aside from his three marvelous solo albums, Kempner also played and toured with The Brandos, The Helen Wheels Band, Little Kings (with Dion DiMucci) and The Paradise Brothers (with Neil Giraldo, who produced the Del-Lords’ Based On A True Story).

Paying tribute to his former bandmate, Shernoff wrote: “Scott was one of the greats, the best buddy a boy could ever want. We bonded over rock ‘n’ roll and we laughed about everything. We had a million inside jokes that nobody understood. I watched him grow from a guy running his SG guitar through his home stereo in his bedroom to playing Marshall amps cranked on stages around the world. His songs and music will speak for themselves. His glorious memory will remain with me forever and I will cherish it.”

Meanwhile, Eric Ambel, who played in the Del-Lords with Kempner wrote: “Scott used his Dictators experience as the heart of that band to inform the songwriting he did for the Del-Lords. His songs weren’t solo songs adapted by the band to play, they were written specifically for the Del-Lords and informed by our lives together and that’s just a part of what made Scott and his songs so unique.”