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Canadian punk rock legend Jon Card has died, with friends and fans mourning his passing on Facebook. He was 63.

Born in Germany to a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot in 1960, Card started his playing career with the metal band Stonehenge before shifting his allegiance to punk. Raised in Calgary, he founded the hardcore band Plasticide there in his late teens.

Card would first rise to prominence as a member of Winnipeg legends Personality Crisis, followed by a stint with Edmonton-spawned thash icons SNFU.

Vancouverites got a front-row seat for his singular style—hard-hitting and brutally precise—when he joined D.O.A. in the late-’80s, staying with the punk forefathers until the early '90s. He also played with first-wave punk giants the Subhumans after they reunited in 2005. (For more on Card's career, go here for an interview with sometimes Straight contributor Allan MacInnis.)

Facebook is flooded with remembrances of Card as a wildly talented drummer. Actor and writer Michael Scholar Jr. shared this: “A Canadian music legend died on the day of totality. No one played harder. Chris Crud used to have to nail a two-by-four in front of his base drum to keep it from moving. Rest in [ercussion, Jon Card. I’m lucky I got to see you play so many times with so many great bands. You will be missed.”

Just as importantly, Card is also being remembered as a standup human being. 

Vancouver author and musician Aaron Chapman wrote on Facebook: “We first met in Calgary in 1992 when he dutifully jumped aboard on tin-whistle at a Real McKenzies show after i was taken away by ambulance from the stage (I’d fallen off the speaker in a bad take of derring-do). I was honoured that a gent with such a musical pedigree filled in for me.”

Punk rock producer Brian Else observed that “the world has lost another great man and musician.” Black Halos singer Billy Hopeless paid tribute with the remembrance: “You were a true ace in the deck, a hell of a guy, and a hell of a drummer. I’ll miss that smile.”

And D.O.A. kept things succinct but heartfelt with “RIP, old friend.”

In a call with the Straight, D.O.A. frontman Joe Keithley calls Card hilarious as a person (“I used to tell him, ‘Jon, you’re a card who should be dealt with,’”) and one of the greatest timekeepers in the history of Canada. 

“It was like playing with Buddy Rich,” Keithley says. “He would go completely out of control, and then he’d just land perfectly on time.”

Card was a musician whom his fellow musicians—including D.O.A.’s current drummer Paddy Duddy—looked up to. 

“Paddy grew up in Calgary and met Jon on the street one time,” Keithley says. “He idolized him—like, ‘This guy is the greatest.’ Paddy told me it was like meeting Elvis Presley.”

Here’s Card pounding the skins with D.O.A. for “The Prisoner”.