Rockers Pay Tribute to John Sykes (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy)

The death of former Whitesnake,Thin Lizzy and Blue Murder guitarist John Sykes has prompted a wave of loving tributes from his peers.

The guitarist died at age 65 after what an official statement describes as “a hard fought battle with cancer.”

“Just heard the shocking news of John’s passing,” wrote David Coverdale, who worked with Sykes on Whitesnake’s Slide It In and Whitesnake albums. “My sincere condolences to his family, friends & fans.”

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“I am saddened about the news of my band mate John Sykes,” wrote drummer Carmine Appice, who performed alongside Sykes in the ’90s group Blue Murder. “I’m shocked about his passing. We played such great music and had such great times together. John’s playing, writing and singing were amazing. …I loved him like a brother. We lived close to each other when we were in Blue Murder, we hung out everyday. He was an amazing guitarist and together with Tony Franklin on bass we had a great rock trio. He will be missed.”

Guitarist Adrian Vandenberg, who also appears on the 1987 Whitesnake album, paid tribute to Sykes while lamenting that fact that they never met in person. “Like many rock lovers I was always hoping he would suddenly blast back on the music scene again with a killer record and start touring again. Musically our paths have crossed a few times but unfortunately we never met in person. Fuck cancer.”

You can see many more loving tributes to Sykes below: