. The success of the album was attributed to the powerful combination of pure rock 'n' roll with Carroll 's poetic sensibility and ability to write from his own experience . The fan Web site Catholicboy.com sums up Carroll 's approach to music by quoting him as saying , `` There ai n't much time left , you 're born out of this insane abyss and you 're going to fall back into it , so while you 're alive you might as well show your bare ass . '' In addition to two follow-up albums , Carroll was a best-selling author of six books . `` He was a sweet , sweet man , and I 'm going to really miss him , '' said Cassie Carter , a close friend for more than 20 years who operates Catholicboy.com . Carroll was born in New York in 1949 and spent his childhood living on the city 's Lower East Side , attending Catholic schools , said Rosemary Carroll , whom he met in 1973 . At 12 , he began keeping a journal that eventually was published as `` The Basketball Diaries '' in 1978 . In it ,
NEW YORK -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Poet and punk rocker Jim Carroll has died at age 60 . Funeral arrangements are pending . Poet , punk rocker and author Jim Carroll performs at a 2002 benefit in New York . A respected poet and musician , Carroll also was the author of `` The Basketball Diaries , '' which was adapted into a 1995 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio . Carroll died Friday at his home in Manhattan after suffering a heart attack , said his former wife , Rosemary Carroll . In 1980 , he released the popular album `` Catholic Boy , '' which , according to his fan Web site , expressed the '' -LSB- b -RSB- omb-fear anticipation , the optimistic nihilism and glittering darkness of the 1980s . '' The track `` People Who Died '' was one of the most-requested songs on FM radio at the time , and as Newsweek 's Barbara Graustark noted then , `` it propelled -LSB- Carroll -RSB- from underground status to national attention as a contender for the title of rock 's new poet laureate . '' The release of the song coincided with the death of John Lennon