Chris Squire, the bassist and co-founder of the British rock band Yes, succumbed to leukemia and died Saturday. He was 67.
The progressive band announced Squire’s death to fans via Facebook on Sunday.
Squire first announced he was diagnosed with leukemia in May and said he planned to miss the band’s first tour this summer while recovering at home in Phoenix.
"This will be the first time since the band formed in 1968 that Yes will have performed live without me,"
Squire said in May, according to USA Today.
Squire arranged for ex-Yes guitar and keyboard player to take his place during his absence.
“The other guys and myself have agreed that Billy Sherwood will do an excellent job of covering my parts and the show as a whole will deliver the same Yes experience that our fans have come to expect over the years,” he assured his fans before his death.
The musician was loyal to the band since 1968 when Jon Anderson, Yes' lead singer, invited him to join the group in a London bar. Squire helped form Yes and was the only band member to have been included on every studio album over the past 45 years. Yes referred to him as the
“linchpin” that kept the group together, CNN reported.
"For the entirety of Yes' existence, Chris was the band's linchpin and, in so many ways, the glue that held it together over all these years," the band said in a statement. "Because of his phenomenal bass-playing prowess, Chris influenced countless bassists around the world, including many of today's well-known artists."
Various musicians, as well as current and former Yes bandmates, expressed their condolences on Twitter.
Yes is still scheduled to perform in New Jersey and New York in August.
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