Rock Legend Dies Following Bike Crash: John Kezdy Was 64

John Kezdy, the singer in the Chicago-based punk rock band the Effigies, has died. Kezdy passed away on Saturday, August 26, from injuries sustained after crashing his bicycle into a van stopped in a bike lane in Glencoe, Illinois on Wednesday, Aug. 23, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed, according to Streetsblog Chicago. Kezdy was 64.

An investigation has found that Kezdy was “traveling northbound on Sheridan Road past South Avenue when he struck the rear” of the stopped vehicle, which belonged to Morton Grove-based home delivery LLC, per a crash report. Glencoe Deputy Chief of Police Andrew Perley said the delivery driver was stopped for a period of time before the collision occurred and was “sorting through packages in the back of the vehicle. The vehicle was not ‘parked.’ It was ‘stopped,’ according to what the state definition of ‘parked’ is.” Perley added that the vehicle’s four-way flashers were on at the time. Video of the incident showed that Kezdy did not hit the brakes, continued pedaling, and did not swerve to avoid the van, Perley said, adding that heat – the temperature hit 98 degrees Fahrenheit the day of the crash – may have been a factor.

Glencoe Public Safety Department confirmed in a statement that officers responded to a call at around 4:15 p.m. of a bicyclist who crashed into a parked van. Kezdy was treated “with lifesaving measures” and taken to Evanston Hospital in critical condition. He was pronounced dead at 10:05 a.m. local time on Saturday. An investigation is ongoing to determine if the delivery van was illegally parked in the bike lane.

Kezdy, who along with his wife, Erica Weeder, survived being injured in the 2022 Highland Park shooting, formed The Effigies in 1980 with guitarist Earl Letiecq, bassist Paul Zamost, and drummer Steve Economou. The following year, the group released their debut EP, Haunted Town, and also founded their own label, Ruthless Records. They went on to release their second EP in 1983 and followed it with their debut album, For Ever Grounded, in 1984. The albums Fly on a Wire and Ink followed in ’85 and ’86 before the Effigies broke up in 1990. The band re-formed in 2004, and released another album, Reside, in 2007.

Outside of his career with The Effigies, Kezdy also played in the brief band the Corrosives. He also graduated from Northwestern University in 1988 and got his law degree from DePaul College of Law in 1991. Kezdy worked as a prosecutor at the Illinois State’s Attorney Office in Kankakee and as a bureau chief of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General.