Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Joe B. Mauldin, a bass player for Buddy Holly and The Crickets, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 74.
The Tennessean reports Mauldin passed away Saturday morning in Nashville, his adopted hometown of more than 30 years.
Mauldin’s manager, Burt Stein, confirmed in an email to The Associated Press on Sunday that Mauldin had died. He didn’t provide details.
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“Our dad was not only the bass player of The Crickets, he was the bass player of our family,” said his daughter, Jennifer Mauldin. “He kept our family’s steady rhythm by ‘locking-in’ with our mother just as a good bass player locks in with his drummer. It’s that foundation that comforts us all.”
Mauldin began playing bass in his early teens and was a member of The Four Teens before joining Holly’s band, The Crickets, in 1957.
After Holly’s death about two years later, The Crickets continued to record and perform, backing the Everly Brothers on an international tour and, in 1960, releasing their first of several post-Holly albums, “In Style with the Crickets.”
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From 1964-66, Mauldin served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany. When he returned, he worked as an engineer at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, where Phil Spector, Herb Alpert and many more recorded while also occasionally performing with Crickets drummer Jerry “J.I” Allison.
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Mauldin and fellow Crickets Allison, Sonny Curtis and the late Niki Sullivan were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Holly was inducted in 1986.
Mauldin’s funeral service will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the American Cancer Society.