Bernie Marsden, original guitarist for the band Whitesnake, has died, according to a statement from his family. He was 72.
Marsden “died peacefully on Thursday evening with his wife, Fran, and daughters, Charlotte and Olivia, by his side”, his family wrote on Instagram. “Bernie never lost his passion for music, writing and recording new songs until the end.”
One of the UK’s foremost rock and blues guitarists, Marsden wrote or co-wrote several of Whitesnake’s hit songs, including Fool for Your Loving, She’s a Woman, Walking in the Shadow of the Blues, Trouble and the international chart-topper Here I Go Again.
Born in Buckingham in 1951, Marsden got his start with the rock band UFO in 1972. After stints in several bands and a short-lived project with former Deep Purple members called Paice Ashton Lord, Marsden created Whitesnake in London in 1978 along with the former Deep Purple singer David Coverdale and the guitarist Micky Moody. Marsden performed on the first EP, five albums and a live album, from Snakebite (1978) through Saints & Sinners (1982). He also released two solo albums during this period, And About Time Too (1979) and Look at Me Now (1981).
Marsden was well known for his extensive and coveted private guitar collection, which included more than 200 pieces. In June, one of his jewels, a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard known as “The Beast” was briefly put up for sale with a price tag exceeding $1.3m.
On Friday morning, his former Whitesnake bandmate Coverdale paid tribute to Marsden on social media. “I’ve just woken up to the awful news that my old friend and former Snake Bernie Marsden has passed,” he wrote on Twitter. “My sincere thoughts and prayers to his beloved family, friends and fans. A genuinely funny, gifted man, whom I was honored to know and share a stage with.”