Rick Davies, the British rock band Supertramp’s co-founder, singer, and songwriter, passed away at the age of 81.

The band, which gained prominence for the 1970s hits “Take the Long Way Home,” “Give a Little Bit,” and “Breakfast in America,” said in a statement on Sunday, September 7, that Davies passed away at his Long Island home on September 5 after battling multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that impacts the bone marrow and blood.

Supertramp issues statement

“The Supertramp Partnership is very sad to announce the death of the Supertramp founder, Rick Davies after a long illness,” the band said in the statement. “We had the privilege of knowing him, and playing with him for over fifty years.”

The musician, who was born in 1944 in Swindon, England, became interested in music from childhood and played the drums and keyboards. Variety reports that Gilbert O’Sullivan was a member of one of his first bands, Rick’s Blues.

Davies was a member of the band The Joint in 1969, but after they split up, he started a new project and ran an advertisement in the British music journal Melody Maker.

Roger Hodgson, a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and songwriter, was influenced by the advertisement and formed the band Daddy, which changed its name to Supertramp in 1970.

Hodgson quit the band to embark on a solo career following the release of their 1982 album, Famous Last Words.

The band’s most popular album was Breakfast in America (1979), which featured the songs “The Logical Song,” “Goodbye Stranger,” and “Take the Long Way Home” and reached at top on the Billboard album chart.

Rick Davies’s myeloma diagnosis

The band called off a 25-date European tour in 2015 following Davies’s multiple myeloma diagnosis.

Even after being diagnosed with cancer, Davies performed, frequently as Ricky and the Rockets.

He is survived by his spouse Sue, who has been managing Supertramp since 1984.