British guitarist John Sykes, a member of both Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake, has passed away at the age of 65. His death was announced in a post on his official Facebook page.
“It is with great sorrow we share that John Sykes has passed away after a hard fought battle with cancer,” read a message on the site. “He will be remembered by many as a man with exceptional musical talent but for those who didn’t know him personally, he was a thoughtful, kind, and charismatic man whose presence lit up the room.”
“He certainly marched to the beat of his own drum and always pulled for the underdog,” the post continued. “In his final days, he spoke of his sincere love and gratitude for his fans who stuck by him through all these years.”
Finally, it noted, “While the impact of his loss is profound and the mood somber, we hope the light of his memory will extinguish the shadow of his absence.”
Sykes joined Thin Lizzy in September 1982, after having teamed with the band’s frontman Phil Lynott to co-write the track “Please Don’t Leave Me.” He continued to play with the different incarnations of the band following Lynott’s 1986 death, and eventually left the group in 2009.
Sykes joined Whitesnake in 1984 and appeared on their sixth studio album, Slide It In, which was released the same year, and became a commercial success for the band. He also co-wrote several songs on the followup, 1987, including hits “Is This Love,”and “Still of the Night.” The record became the band’s most commercially successful album, although Sykes and his other bandmates were let go by frontman David Coverdale before the album’s release.
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