Allen Lanier, keyboard player, rhythm guitarist and a founding member of Blue Oyster Cult, has died at the age of 66.

Lanier was hospitalised with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (C.O.P.D.), a disease associated with smoking.

Blue Oyster Cult singer Eric Bloom posted on Facebook, “My great friend Allen Lanier has passed. I’ll miss the guy even though we hadn’t spoken in awhile. He was so talented as a musician and a thinker. He read voraciously, all kinds of things, especially comparative religion. We drove for years together, shared rooms in the early days. We partied, laughed, played. All BOC fans and band members will mourn his death. Ultimately smoking finally got to him. He had been hospitalized with C.O.P.D. It was Allen who heard some old college band tapes of mine and suggested I get a shot as the singer in 1968. A lot of great memories, over 40 years worth. Maybe he’s playing a tune with Jim Carroll right now”.

Lanier co-wrote several Blue Oyster Cult songs including “True Confessions”, “Tenderloin”, “Searchin’ for Celine”, “In Thee” and “Lonely Teardrops”. He was also a one-time partner of Patti Smith.

Lanier was with Blue Oyster Cult from 1967 to 1985 but returned in 1987 and then retired from performing in 2006.

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