Buffalo Springfield’s Drummer Dewey Martin Dies at 68 (Photos/Video)

Posted on February 6, 2009

Dewey Martin (shown on left), drummer for the rock band Buffalo Springfield, has died at age 68. Read more on Dewey Martin’s death below.

Dewey Martin was found dead Sunday by his roommate in his Van Nuys apartment, Martin’s friend Lisa Lenes said Thursday. Martin’s cause of death has not yet been determined. “We believe it was natural causes,” Lenes said, adding that he had suffered health problems these past few years.

Dewey Martin was one of the founding members of Buffalo Springfield. Although the group was only together for two years, they recorded three albums. The group split due to tension and the ambitions of other band members.

In his autobiography “Shakey,” Neil Young praised Martin’s musical sensitivity. “You get harder, he hits harder. You pull back, he hits back. He can feel the music — you don’t have to tell him.”

“It’s a great loss,” Micky Dolenz, drummer for the Monkees, said Thursday. Dolenz said he became close friends with Martin in the late ’60s when both were working in and around Hollywood. “We never worked together, we just hung out a lot. We went to shows together at the Whisky and the Troubadour. He was a great drummer — it’s a well-known fact. And he was a really nice guy.”

Martin played on Buffalo Springfield songs including “For What It’s Worth,” “Mr. Soul,” “Rock ‘N’ Roll Woman” and “Broken Arrow.”

Dewey Martin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the group in 1997.

“He didn’t want to go to the induction,” Lenes said. “But I told him, ‘You need to be there, you need to be acknowledged.’ When I saw him on TV, it was so great.”

Lenes said Martin would be buried in Canada at his family’s request, and that plans for a memorial service in the Los Angeles area were in the works. Information on his survivors was not immediately available.

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