Stars Pay Tribute To Jon Lord

Unsurprisingly there has been an outpouring of grief from everyone in the rock community on their websites and on Twitter.

Lord’s Deep Purple and Whitesnake bandmate David Coverdale stated on their official website, "It was an absolute joy and pleasure for me to know him and work alongside him. He is missed already.”

Another of his former bandmates, Ian Gillan, spoke to Darren Redick in a phone interview today:

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Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler posted online, "Very sad to hear of Jon’s death, following his battle with the demon cancer. One of the greatest musicians of my generation. Tony Iommi recently worked with Jon, and said what a lovely bloke he was. I met him a few times, but never got to work with him. Blessings.”

Twisted Sister's Dee Snider stated, "I just found out that Jon Lord from Deep Purple passed away. What an amazing musician and a true gentleman. We lost a great one ... RIP.”

Slash added, "Sad day in rock and roll. Jon Lord has passed on. One of the biggest, baddest, heaviest sounds in Heavy Metal. One of a kind. RIP.”

Iron Maiden offered, "Very sad to hear that Jon Lord has passed away.”

Fish said "Rip Jon Lord. An absolute gentleman and ground breaking keyboard player. Great memories left for us all"

Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello said "RIP the great Jon Lord, Deep Purple's cornerstone/keyboardist. So many great great songs and that incredible SOUND of his! Thankyou."

Bryan Adams Tweeted "RIP Jon Lord - incredible organist for Deep Purple, one of my fave bands growing up."

Another former bandmates Glenn Hughes said "I have just landed in LA from London, to hear the sad news of the passing of our brother Jon Lord. I will miss him."

Asia's Geoff Downes said "Jon Lord bridged the keyboard gap between classic and heavy rock. Probably the only keyboard player to achieve that feat! Total respect!"

Steve Hackett added "I'm saddened at the death of Jon Lord. A very nice man who brought the worlds of classical and rock music closer together."

Joe Bonamassa, who recently worked with Jon, said "I am extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Jon Lord today. One of the nicest and most talented people Ive ever met. Rest in Peace."

And his good friend Rick Wakeman paid a really moving tribute on his website, saying "I first became aware of Jon Lord in the mid-sixties when  Hush was released and I bought the album Shades of Deep Purple which was an album way ahead of its time. For obvious reasons I paid special attention to the organ style and sound as it was quite different from how other Hammond players were using the instrument. I became a genuine admirer and fan of Jon that day and remained so with everything he did

"We became real friends just a few years ago although we had met on numerous occasions prior to that. We did talks together at music conservatories, we met for lunch and most importantly made music together. We wrote a piece 12 months ago for the Sunflower Jam at the Royal Albert Hall. We wrote this piece together at John Henry's rehearsal studios in London and it was so easy because we had such different styles and because Jon was concentrating heavily on the Hammond and I on synthesizers, the blend was quite magical. The piece was performed just the once and I am told was filmed. although I have never seen the footage.

"We sat in the dressing room which we shared at the Royal Albert Hall and made plans to do an album together. We were both utterly convinced that we could come up with something very special as our styles blended so well together. Our love of classical music and also working that style within that of rock music also completed the bond . We arranged to meet up later that month

"One week before we were due to meet Jon called me with the news he was ill. He was very positive and actually said he'd never felt better in his life and so he would beat it however long it took and so to bear with our project which went on hold.

"We spoke a couple of times after that and the last message I got was that he was responding well to his treatment. The news today has hurt me like no other loss of a musician I have known. I can only thank him for the legacy he has left us all with his great music, great vision and for his kindness as he was one of the most gentle and kind persons I have ever had the pleasure of being able to call my friend. My heart goes out to Vicki his wife and all his family."