Leslie West, frontman for hard rock band Mountain, died Wednesday at 75.
A rep for the singer-guitarist said he suffered cardiac arrest in Palm Coast, Florida.
Formed on Long Island, New York in 1969, Mountain made its mark with an 11-song set at the famous Woodstock Festival. Its debut album Climbing! came out in 1970 and included the hit “Mississippi Queen.”
The band put out two more studio albums and a live album before calling it quits in 1972. West, though, reunited with certain bandmates several times over the years for more recordings and performances.
Mountain songs have been sampled by hip hop acts like Public Enemy, Kendrick Lamar and Jay Z – and West’s vocals on “Long Red” are sampled on Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die.”
West, who released a solo blues album in 2015, continued doing live shows until last year. He also played with artists like Peter Frampton, Ian Gillan and Ozzy Osbourne.
“I’m not a great guitarist, technically,” West told Guitar World in 1987. “But you know why people remember me? If you take a hundred players and put them in a room, 98 or 99 of ’em are gonna sound the same. The one who plays different, that’s the one you’re going to remember.”
West was born Leslie Weinstein in New York City and started playing music at an early age (he had said he used his bar mitzvah money to buy his first guitar). He and brother Larry formed the Vagrants in the mid-1960s.
West struggled with obesity and lost part of his right leg in 2011 to complications of diabetes. He also survived bladder cancer.
West is survived by Jenni Maurer, whom he married at the Woodstock 40th anniversary show in 2009, and his brother Larry.