Singer and actor Michael Parks has died, at the age of 77. The news was announced by Kevin Smith on his Twitter feed. Smith, whose post you can read below, has been open about the fact that he wrote roles for Parks, notably the lead in Red State.

We could write lots of words about Parks, his breadth of work, and his legion of fans. But if it’s all the same, we’re going to leave it to Smith. His words are better than ours.