Butch Trucks, co-founding drummer with the Allman Brothers Band, has passed away at age 69. A cause of death is currently unknown.

“Butch Trucks, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, tragically died the night of January 24 in West Palm Beach, Florida,” the band’s public-relations firm said in an official statement. “His wife, four children, four grandchildren and all of the Allman Brothers Band, their families and Road Crew survive Butch. The Trucks and Allman Brothers Band families request all of Butch’s friends and fans to please respect our privacy at this time of sadness for our loss. Butch will play on in our hearts forever.”

Trucks started the Allman Brothers Band with Duane and Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley and Jai Johanny Johanson in 1969. That followed a tenure in college at Florida State in which Trucks said he “majored in staying out of Vietnam,” according to Rolling Stone. While there, he formed a band called the Bitter End; Trucks met Duane and Gregg Allman at one of their shows in Daytona Beach.

The Allman Brothers Band left the road in 2014 after a series of celebrated concerts, and Trucks concentrated on work with the Freight Train Band.
There had been talk last year of a possible Allman Brothers Band reunion, though Trucks’ nephew Derek Trucks – a late-period member who’s now focused on his own Tedeschi Trucks Band – had already declined to participate.
The Allmans’ PR firm said donations and remembrances in Butch Trucks’ name may be made to the Big House Museum in Macon, Ga.