Adam Yauch died in 2012 from parotid cancer, after which Beastie Boys disbanded.
17 Facts About Adam Yauch
2.
Adam Yauch's father Noel was an architect, and his mother Frances was a social worker.
3.
Adam Yauch's mother was Jewish and his father Catholic, but he had a non-religious upbringing in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn.
4.
Adam Yauch attended Bard College for two years before dropping out.
5.
Adam Yauch directed many of Beastie Boys' music videos, often under the pseudonym Nathaniel Hornblower.
6.
In 2002, Adam Yauch constructed a recording studio in New York City called Oscilloscope Laboratories.
7.
Adam Yauch began an independent film distributing company called Oscilloscope Pictures.
8.
Adam Yauch's bandmates paid tribute to him; a letter from Yauch was read to the audience.
9.
In 2011, Adam Yauch received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College, the college he attended for two years.
10.
Adam Yauch became an important voice in the Tibetan independence movement, creating the Milarepa Fund, a nonprofit organization devoted to Tibetan independence and organized several benefit concerts to support the cause, including the Tibetan Freedom Concert.
11.
In 1998, during the MTV Video Music Awards, when receiving the Video Vanguard Award, Adam Yauch condemned America's wars in Muslim countries and prejudice against Muslims and Arabs.
12.
Artist Cihan Kaan wrote an obituary for Al Jazeera that Adam Yauch was "Muslim Americans' hero, and America's personal Jewish Gandhi".
13.
In July 2009, Adam Yauch was diagnosed with a cancerous parotid gland and lymph node.
14.
Adam Yauch underwent surgery and radiation therapy, delaying the release of Hot Sauce Committee Part Two and the subsequent tour.
15.
Adam Yauch was unable to appear in music videos for the album.
16.
Adam Yauch became a vegan on the recommendation of his doctors.
17.
At the time, Adam Yauch described the cancer as "very treatable".