Rob Sexton, a longtime bay area musician and the owner of St. Petersburg’s Planet Retro Records, died Saturday of complications following a stroke. He was 55.
A native of the Tampa suburb Clair-Mel, Sexton was widely known as the drummer in numerous punk and hardcore bands, going back to the 1980s. He’d been in Lazy Susan, Failure Face and other popular groups, and was a member of the still-current Slap of Reality, a self-described “melodic punk/hardcore band” that first formed in 1987.
Sexton was known not to suffer fools gladly. As the face behind the Planet Retro counter, “He could come across as a curmudgeon,” said Sexton’s longtime friend Keith Ulrey, owner of Tampa’s Microgroove Records. “But the guy cared very much for his community, his bands and his friends. He would do anything for anybody, really. He just didn’t put up with any sh–.”…