Peter Ventantonio (June 11, 1970 – May 12, 2021), known professionally as Jack Terricloth, was an American musician and guitarist, the lead singer of the

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

band

the World/Inferno Friendship Society The World/Inferno Friendship Society (also referred to as World Inferno, or Inferno) was an American band from Brooklyn, New York. Its style merged punk, soul, klezmer and jazz, while its collective membership featured horns, piano and guita ...

and guitarist and vocalist of Sticks and Stones. He died on May 12, 2021, in his

Ridgewood, Queens Ridgewood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It borders the Queens neighborhoods of Maspeth to the north, Middle Village to the east, and Glendale to the southeast, as well as the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick to ...

, apartment due to hypertensive cardiovascular disease. He grew up in

Bridgewater Township, New Jersey Bridgewater Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located within the heart of the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region. Situated within Central Jersey, Cen ...

, the son of a businessman father and a school-principal mother; his hometown is referenced in the 1997 album ''The True Story of the Bridgewater Astral League'' by the World/Inferno Friendship Society. He attended

Bridgewater-Raritan High School Bridgewater-Raritan High School (commonly abbreviated as BRHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school. It is the lone secondary school of the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District serving students in ninth through twelfth grade ...

, where he met future Sticks and Stones bassist Osamu Kawahara. During high school, he sold subscriptions to the ''

Courier News The ''Courier News'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Somerville, New Jersey, that serves Somerset County and other areas of Central Jersey. The paper has been owned by Gannett since 1927. Notable employees *John Curley, former presi ...

''. He credited the

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

music scene with putting him on the map, but he moved to

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. As the front man and public face of World/Inferno, Terricloth advocated drinking, lying, traveling, stealing, doing drugs, keeping enemies, always looking one's best, getting in fights, befriending hobos and "walking the walk," through his lyrics, on-stage banter, and a rarely updated

advice column An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are w ...

on the band's website. He was the author of two

chapbooks A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

, ''Cloth Dam Sorrow'' and ''Bakshish'', both of which are anthologized with additional material in ''The Collected Cloth''. His band Sticks and Stones, formed in the late 1980s, reunited in November 2017 for a series of performances in Brooklyn and

Asbury Park, New Jersey Asbury Park () is a beachfront city located on the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 15,188, a decr ...

.Biese, Alex
"Sticks and Stones reunite for Asbury Park, Brooklyn shows"
''

Asbury Park Press The ''Asbury Park Press'', formerly known as the ''Shore Press'', ''Daily Press'', ''Asbury Park Daily Press'', and ''Asbury Park Evening Press'', is the third largest daily newspaper in the state of New Jersey. Established in 1879, it has been o ...

'', November 2, 2017. Accessed September 4, 2019. "Ventantonio and Kawahara first met in 1988, when Kawahara movedto Bridgewater at the age of 19 and both attended Bridgewater-Raritan High School." When asked how he would like to be remembered, Terricloth replied: "Just to be remembered would be swell. Maybe remembered as 'that guy who was brave and gave me some ideas. Ventantonio died on May 12, 2021. In 2022 the Jack Terricloth Foundation was founded by his sister Lisa and fellow artist Scott Hollingsworth, with the aim to promote arts and "marginalized voices".

References

External links

Jack Terricloth's Advice Column
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terricloth, Jack 1970 births 2021 deaths American rock guitarists American rock singers Bridgewater-Raritan High School alumni Musicians from Somerset County, New Jersey People from Bridgewater Township, New Jersey Writers from Somerset County, New Jersey