
Keith Emerson, the flamboyant yet accomplished keyboard player who pioneered the use of synthesisers in rock music, has died at age 71, his bandmates said on Friday.
The English musician died late on Thursday at his home in the Los Angeles area, his former band, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, announced on Facebook.
“Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come,” Carl Palmer, the group’s percussionist, said in a statement.
“He was a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz,” he said.
Santa Monica police say Emerson died from a self-inflicted single gunshot to his head. Police have preliminarily ruled the death a potential suicide.
Born in 1944 in the Yorkshire village of Todmorden, Emerson was a keyboardist for a number of groups in the 1960’s.