Another great bassist has left us. Rick Rosas, who served as longtime bassist for Neil Young, has passed away at the age of 65. The cause of death has not been released.

Affectionately known as “Rick the Bass Player,” Rosas got his musical start in an instrumental surf band called Mark & The Escorts in the early 1960’s. The core of that group would go on to record with A&M Records as part of a new group called Tango, but it was his meeting with Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh that solidified his career. Rosas first appeared on Walsh’s 1985 release The Confessor and contributed to six more albums up through 2012’s Analog Man.

He was playing with Walsh at Farm Aid in 1987 when he first crossed paths with Neil Young, which blossomed into a long-standing musical relationship. Young recruited Rosas for his band the Bluenotes, which put out This Note’s for You in 1988, and retained him after the group broke up. He would appear on the EP Eldorado and 1989’s Freedom before returning to work with Walsh. Young brought Rosas back into the fold in 2005 and kept him around thereon. In 2014, he filled in on tour for Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot, who suffered a stroke.

Though he’s best known for working with Walsh and Young, Rosas was a mainstay of the L.A. music scene and worked with Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Rivers, Ron Wood, Etta James, Buffalo Springfield, and more. He performed as a member of the Waddy Wachtel Band since 2000.

Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Rick Rosas.