Beach Boys supporting player Jeffrey Foskett dies at 67

"Jeff was always there for me when we toured and we couldn’t have done it without him," Brian Wilson wrote in remembrance.

Jeffrey Foskett may not have been a founding member of the Beach Boys, but the guitarist and singer proved an indispensable member of their tours over the last few decades, performing with both Brian Wilson and Mike Love's versions of the band. Foskett died Monday after a long battle with anaplastic thyroid cancer, a representative for the band confirmed to EW. He was 67.

"I’m so heartbroken that my dear friend Jeff Foskett has passed," Wilson wrote on Facebook. "Jeff was always there for me when we toured and we couldn’t have done it without him. Jeff was one of the most talented guys I ever knew. He was a great musical leader and guitarist and he could sing like an angel."

Born in 1956, Foskett grew up as a big fan of the Beach Boys. As he told Rolling Stone in 2019, when he was 20, he and a friend randomly drove up to Wilson's L.A. house and knocked on the door. To their surprise, their idol couldn't have been friendlier, telling them to "come on in" for an afternoon of music and lunch.

A few months later, Love saw Foskett perform with his own band at a Santa Barbara restaurant, and invited them to back him up on the tour for his solo album Looking Back With Love. From then on, Foskett was in the Beach Boys orbit. He substituted in for Carl Wilson, and stayed until 1990. In 1998, Foskett played alongside Wilson when he made a return to public life, accepted a lifetime achievement award, and went on a successful comeback tour.

Wilson, Love, and the rest of the founding members reunited in 2012 for a 50th anniversary tour, which Foskett described to Rolling Stone as "the most fun tour I’d ever been on, and I’ve been on a lot of tours." After parting ways with Wilson in 2014, Foskett became a part of Love's Beach Boys until his cancer diagnosis put a strain on his singing.

Life expectations aren't long with anaplastic thyroid cancer, but Foskett was able to survive for a few more years thanks to radical new treatment. In an Instagram post from March, Foskett sang the praises of the staff, "from the valet parking attendants to the nurses to my two main doctors," at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

"These people have given me what no one else on Earth could have: Life," Foskett wrote, saying that his years-long clinical trial took a toll but "it has left me THRIVING and most importantly able to meet my grandson Domenic."

In the wake of Foskett's death, his family took to his Instagram account to tell fans "thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of the kind words and memories you have shared with us. We love reading about every show, every tour memory, and every laugh he provided to the world."

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