Rick Davies, the singer and keyboardist who as a founding member of prog-rock and pop group Supertramp penned some of the band’s most popular and enduring songs, died on Saturday at his home in Long Island. He was 81.

“The Supertramp Partnership is very sad to announce the death of Supertramp founder Rick Davies after a long illness,” the band wrote in a statement. “We had the privilege of knowing him, and playing with him for over 50 years. We offer our sincere condolences to Sue Davies.” A cause of death was not immediately available, but Davies had been battling multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, for over a decade.

Taking the name from the 1908 book The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by Welsh author William Henry Davies, Davies founded the group in 1969 with guitarist Richard Palme

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