Levon Helm has passed away.

Levon Helm died today at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He was age 71 and had been fighting an ongoing battle with cancer.

Helm’s longtime guitarist Larry Campbell told Rolling Stone magazine:

“He passed away peacefully at 1:30 this afternoon surrounded by his friends and bandmates,” “All his friends were there, and it seemed like Levon was waiting for them. Ten minutes after they left we sat there and he just faded away. He did it with dignity. It was even two days ago they thought it would happen within hours, but he held on. It seems like he was Levon up to the end, doing it the way he wanted to do it. He loved us, we loved him.”

Rest in Peace