Allen Lanier, original founding member of legendary classic rock outfit Blue Öyster Cult, has died at 67 years old after a long battle with lung disease, the group announced on Wednesday. He was 67.
“We’ve lost our friend and bandmate,” surviving bandmembers said in a statement, confirming that Lanier died of complications from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. “DFTR sweet man. We love you and miss you.” The reference, of course, being an acronym for one of the band’s biggest hits, “Don’t Fear The Reaper”.
The keyboardist and guitarist co-founded the group in Long Island in the late ’60s, and appeared on the band’s 14 studio albums, most recently 2001’s Curse of the Hidden Mirror.
Frontman Eric Bloom eulogized his “great friend” in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday, referencing the notion that Lanier’s habitual cigarette smoking “finally got him.”
“I’ll miss the guy even though we hadn’t spoken in awhile,” he wrote. “He was so talented as a musician and a thinker. He read voraciously, all kinds of things, especially comparative religion. We drove for years together, shared rooms in the early days. We partied, laughed, played. All BOC fans and band members will mourn his death. Ultimately smoking finally got to him. He had been hospitalized with C.O.P.D. It was Allen who heard some old college band tapes of mine and suggested I get a shot as the singer in 1968. A lot of great memories, over 40 years worth. Maybe he’s playing a tune with Jim Carroll right now.”
Photo: Michael Putland, Getty Images
