Comedian George Carlin, a devout atheist and lover of foul words, died last night from heart failure at the age of 71. Carlin checked into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pains before dying later that evening, his publicist, Jeff Abraham said. Carlin broke out in the ‘60s and was very influenced by the counterculture. He pissed off a lot of people, much like his idol Lenny Bruce, with his brazen approach to comedy. He wasn’t afraid to talk about Vietnam or the drugs kids were experimenting with, and during his 40 plus years as a comedian he never stopped talking about war, politics, drugs and religion, offering hilarious yet insightful arguments against everything that he felt was morally corrupt with society.

It’s no secret that Carlin did drugs. The first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975 was hosted by Carlin, admittedly while he was high on cocaine. He had a heart attack in the ’70s before he kicked his coke habit in the ’80s. Despite his personal battles with drugs that lasted most of his life, his comedy never faltered.

Carlin leaves behind a legacy most notably for his Seven Dirty Words routine that got him arrested at a Milwaukee gig in 1972 for “disturbing the peace.” His dirty words eventually lead the Supreme Court to its decision on keeping offensive language off the air while children may be listening (lovingly referred to as “family hour”). Carlin was eventually exonerated thanks to a little thing known as free speech and was forever ingrained in peoples’ minds as a man who was not afraid to speak his mind.

-Janine Rizak