Ocasek produced records by two generations of punk and indie acts, including Bad Religion, Guided by Voices, Suicide, Bad Brains, D Generation and Nada Surf. But if he pushed his sunglasses onto the bridge of his nose, you saw his turquoise eyes, and when he looked at you and smiled, it was like, Oh my God, the sun came out!, Even Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes, who met Ocasek in the early Seventies, says he never fully knew his on-and-off bandmate. For a while, it inspired him, but the fame thing wore him down, says Hawkes. How royals have perfected the art of taking pictures at engagements with these 5 easy tricks, King's coronation parade will be double the size of the Queen's funeral, say army officers who watched last crowning on YouTube to help them plan the big event, Moving day? It was hard to get him to agree to do even whatever we did, says Hawkes. From the NY Post today: "Late Cars' singer Ric Ocasek cut his estranged, supermodel wife out of his will, claiming that she "abandoned" him, the now-public document reveals."I have made no provision for my wife Paulina Porizkova ("Paulina") as we are in the process of divorcing," the new-wave icon wrote in his last wishes. The new wave rock star died of natural causes at the age of 75 in his Gramercy Park apartment Sept. 15. He didnt want you to have [any] money, and he disinherited his two oldest sons. So, I was really messed up, and I wont ever have the answers.. In September 2020, Ocasek's Gramercy Park Townhouse, which he shared with his estranged wife for almost 30 years, sold for $10 million; even with no other assets to his name, such a valuable property would have already exceeded the original $5 million net worth estimate (via Street Easy). He was still friends with Greg [Hawkes] and brought him in for some arrangement stuff, says Graffin. Not many people in the middle of a divorce decide to update their will or trust before the divorce is final. Ben and Ric were not getting along, Hawkes admits. 'If I decide to pick up the check, I can tell I've just emasculated them. In 2018, Ocasek and Porizkova started divorce proceedings but continued to live together, sharing a large townhouse in New York City but not a bed. The album's first track, "Good Times Roll," is a strangely dispassionate call to revelry: mid-tempo, instructing, cool, hovering aloof above the notion of good times.