Roky Erickson, Psychedelic Rock Musician and 13th Floor Elevators Singer, Dead at 71
Roky Erickson, a psychedelic rock musician who started his career in the 1960s and whose music would later go on to have a cult following, died at the age of 71 on Friday.
While the cause of the rock star’s death remains unknown, Erickson’s brother, Mikel Erickson, spoke about his passing in a Facebook post.
“My brother Roky passed away peaceably today. Please allow us time. Music and laughter forever,” he said, next to a picture with his brother.
“The world lost a huge light and an incredible soul,” Erickson’s other brother, Sumner, told local Austin news outlet Austin360. “It wasn’t the easiest life, but he’s free of all that now.”
“Roky Erickson, an heroic icon of modern rock & roll and one of the best friends the music ever had, died in Austin, Texas today,” the singer’s rep confirmed in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Erikson was the lead singer of the band 13th Floor Elevators, which he helped found in 1965 when he was 18 years old. The band released their first LP, titled The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, the following year. Their music has since garnered a cult following and is credited with helping to create the psychedelic rock genre.
“The band’s original songs, many written with lyricist Tommy Hall, coupled with Erickson’s super-charged vocals and guitar sparked the psychedelic music revolution in the mid-1960s, and led to a new role of what rock could be,” his rep’s statement continued.
“Erickson never wavered from that path, and while he faced incredible challenges at different points in his life, his courage always led him on to new musical adventures, one he continued without compromise his entire life. The family asks for privacy while they deal with the loss of a son, brother, husband and father,” the statement concluded.
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Erickson began to demonstrate symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia after the band broke up in 1969, Rolling Stone reported, and shortly after was arrested for possession of a joint and sent to a mental hospital until 1972.
Billy F. Gibbons of the band ZZ Top said he finds it “unfathomable to contemplate a world” without the Texas native.
“Roky came to mean many things to many admirers and will continue to resonate with a legacy of remarkable style, talent, and poetic and artistic tales from beyond,” Gibbons said in a statement to the outlet. “It’s almost unfathomable to contemplate a world without Roky Erickson.”
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“He created his own musical galaxy and early on was an true inspiration,” he added. “Even now, Roky is a source of creative energy of the first order. It’s really a circumstance where he continues to provide the requisite ‘Reverberation.’ Something he predicted when he sang ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ … We certainly do know now that he’s at one with the universe.”
In 2005, director Keven McAlester released a documentary about the singer’s life titled You’re Gonna Miss Me, and a tribute album to the singer was released in 1990, titled Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye. A rep for Erickson did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
