Tim Mohr, the celebrated journalist, author, and translator, passed away at the age of 55 at his home in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday. Known for his groundbreaking collaborations with rock legends like Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan and Kiss frontman Paul Stanley, Mohr left an indelible mark on both the literary and music worlds.
His publisher, Europa Editions, confirmed his passing, with executive publisher Michael Reynolds sharing a heartfelt message about Mohr’s extraordinary character. "I loved and admired Tim for his eloquence, his moral compass, his large, rebel heart, his consummate cool," Reynolds wrote. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer. Reynolds emphasized how Mohr’s warm heart, curiosity about people, and dedication to friendships made him deeply loved. "He had many friends – a testament to his genuine curiosity about other people and their life experiences, his warm heart and open mind, and to the energy and effort he put into maintaining friendships – and I know that today, like me, they are devastated."
Before carving out a successful career in journalism and literature, Mohr spent much of the 1990s as a club DJ in Berlin. His transition to writing saw his work appear in major publications, including New York, The New York Times Book Review, and Details. He also served as a staff editor for Playboy, where he worked with an eclectic mix of voices such as Hunter S. Thompson, John Dean, and comic book legend Harvey Pekar. It was at Playboy that Mohr first connected with McKagan, hiring him in 2008 to write a financial column—a move that would change the rock star’s life.
McKagan, deeply grateful for Mohr’s mentorship, shared his thoughts with Rolling Stone: "To be in Tim's literary world was a crash-course lesson on how to be concise and informative, with nudges of humor here and there. He nudged me to be great at all times, and to have humor every breathing second … Tim was mainly responsible for guiding me and pushing me to write my first book It's So Easy (and other lies). I am forever grateful for his guidance … We lost a good man, a family man, a friend, and a literary lion."
Following the success of McKagan’s book, Mohr took on the challenge of completing The Last Holiday, the unfinished memoir of jazz-funk icon Gil Scott-Heron, which was released a year after Scott-Heron’s death. His talent for capturing the voices of legendary figures led him to collaborate with Paul Stanley on Face the Music: A Life Exposed in 2014 and with industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge on Nonbinary, published posthumously in 2021.
Stanley, mourning the loss of his friend, posted on X (formerly Twitter), "My dear friend, literary collaborator, pure soul, brilliant mind, street food gourmet and so much more has died from pancreatic cancer. I'm heartbroken. If you knew him, you loved him. The world has lost a bright light."
While Mohr’s collaborations with music legends earned him widespread acclaim, it was his own book—one that took nearly a decade to complete—that truly defined his legacy. Burning Down the Haus, released in 2018, chronicled the rebellious punk movement in 1980s East Germany and its role in dismantling the Berlin Wall. The book offered a fresh perspective on the Cold War, challenging the dominant American narrative that attributed the fall of the Wall to Western influence. Mohr himself described his discovery process in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone: "I realized I'd been fed the typical American mythology of the importance of Reagan's ‘Tear Down This Wall' speech and how Easterners just wanted to have Big Macs and Levis and all that shit. Then, here I was confronted with the people who had actually done the work: they had sacrificed their bodies to fight the dictatorship. It takes a lot more than a latent desire for hamburgers to bring down a dictatorship."
The book was met with critical acclaim, making the longlist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Rolling Stone named it one of the best books of the year, and legendary music journalist Legs McNeil compared it to the iconic punk history Please Kill Me. "I've been waiting for a punk book to come out that's as good as Please Kill Me," McNeil said.
Mohr’s passion for the punk movement went beyond mere documentation. He was deeply inspired by the resilience of young East German punks who, despite being arrested, beaten, and imprisoned, refused to back down. "It's amazing to me that a bunch of kids with bad haircuts could change their society. … The punks kept fighting," Mohr said in 2018. "They're being arrested, beaten, and sent to jail. They would come out of jail and put their leather jacket back on and go back out to that fight. That paved the way for that whole opposition. It showed others that it was possible to resist and survive."
In addition to his journalistic and literary achievements, Mohr made a name for himself as a translator. Since 2008, he translated seven novels by acclaimed German author Alina Bronsky, along with works by Dorothea Dieckmann, Charlotte Roche, and Stefanie de Velasco. His publisher, Reynolds, praised his talent: "[His] ear for the cadences of his source language was second-to-none, and his facility and inventiveness with English made his translations exciting to read. He was determined to establish his reputation as a translator of female voices, and, at the same time, of voices from outside the mainstream."
Bronsky expressed her deep sorrow over Mohr’s passing, saying, "I was devastated to hear about Tim's death. I still cannot believe it, because the world of literature and translation has its own rules, and to me, people who created great things never die. I always felt my novels were completely safe with him, being treated in his very own, unique, sensitive, and brilliant way. I am so grateful that his name will stay forever on the front pages of my American translations."
Tim Mohr was more than just a writer—he was a storyteller, a mentor, a rebel, and a friend. His legacy will live on through the powerful words he left behind, the stories he brought to life, and the countless people he inspired. Whether through his work with legendary musicians, his fearless documentation of punk resistance, or his masterful translations, Mohr’s impact on the literary world is undeniable. His passing leaves a void, but his words will continue to resonate for generations to come.
Login