Keyboardist was 67 years old.
Allen Lanier, keyboardist and founding member of Blue Oyster Cult, passed away yesterday from a chronic lung disease at the age of 67.
The keyboardist had stopped touring in 2006, but reunited with Blue Oyster Cult for the band's 40th anniversary show in New York.
The band posted a statement on Facebook in tribute to the keyboardist. On his personal page, vocalist Eric Bloom wrote:
“My great friend Allen Lanier has passed away. I will miss him, even though we haven’t spoken in a while. He was so talented as a musician and thinker. We spent many years together, sharing rooms in the early days. We partied, laughed, played. All BOC fans and band members will mourn his death. Ultimately, smoking finally took him from us. It was Allen who listened to some tapes of the band I had in high school, it was he who suggested I become a singer in 1968. A lot of great memories, more than 40 years that were worthwhile.”