Spencer was guitarist for Beasts Of Bourbon, The Johnnys, Paul Kelly and many more.

Legendary Australian rock'n'roll guitarist Spencer P. Jones has passed away after being diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer earlier this year.

His wife Angie confirmed the news on Facebook overnight.

"My husband, my partner, my soulmate and my friend Spencer Patrick Jones passed away peacefully earlier this evening holding my hand after being sung a beautiful song by Angela Howard," she wrote.

"It was truly beautiful and he is now at peace with his brothers in arms Brian H Hooper and Ashley Morgan Jones."

Jones, who was in his early 60s, has been a mainstay in Australian punk and garage rock since the 1970s, performing in countless bands and as a solo artist until 2015, when severe illness forced his retirement.

He was a self-taught guitarist whose playing formed the sharp edge of acclaimed records by his first major band, The Johnnys, and as a member of Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls.

He was perhaps best know for his work in Beasts of Bourbon alongside Tex Perkins, James Baker of Hoodoo Gurus and Kim Salmon and Boris Sujdovic of The Scientists.

The band, which formed in 1983 and disbanded several times over the next few decades, earned a fierce reputation on the independent scene for its guttural swamp rock and wild live shows.

Spencer P. Jones

Jones and Perkins were the only mainstay members across the band's 30 years of making music.

In 2014, speaking with Double J, Jones recalled making early Beasts records at night in an EMI studio to cut costs.

"The cleaning lady turned up when we were just about to do a take and said 'you guys had better finish now'," he said.

"We were doing it on a cheap scale and we had to be out of there by 7am."

Jones' later work as a solo artist and out the front of his bands The Escape Committee and The Nothing Butts (featuring Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin from The Drones and Baker) was equally acclaimed.

In June, Jones and Angie announced that doctors had found a tumor in his kidney and given him just months to live.

Their announcement came mere weeks after the passing of Jones' Beasts Of Bourbon bandmate Brian Hooper and led to a series of benefit concerts around the country.

Jones' friend Patrick Emery, who is writing a book on the guitarist, described him as a "lifer" in the music business and a generous person considered "the gentleman of Australian rock'n'roll".

"I think Spencer's legacy is enormous," he told Double J on Wednesday.

"He's played not only in his own bands, Beasts of Bourbon, The Johnnys, and his solo music, but he's contributed to so many significant Australian musicians and albums over the years.

"All the people I've spoken to spoke fondly of how he would support and encourage their music and when he heard what he liked, he would offer to help with it.

"He would never dominate someone else's music but always add and enhance to it."

Liddiard told Double J Jones was a source of inspiration and encouragement and one "one of the first 50 fans" of The Drones when the band relocated from Perth to Melbourne early on.

"Everyone who knows him, learned from him – don't be a poser, keep it real."

Tune in to Double J all day for tributes to Spencer P. Jones.