Trevor Bolder, English rock bassist and songwriter who is best known for his time with David Bowie’s The Spiders from Mars and progressive hard rock band Uriah Heep, has died of cancer. He was 62.

Bolder played with Bowie’s The Spiders from Mars across four studio albums: Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups. He also played with The Spiders From Mars with Mick Woodmansey and the late Mick Ronson on the subsequent Bowie tours. In 1976 Bolder joined Uriah Heep, replacing John Wetton.

“Trevor was a wonderful musician and a major inspiration for whichever band he was working with. But he was foremostly a tremendous guy, a great man,” said David Bowie.

Uriah Heep had this to say in a statement on their website:

It is with great sadness that Uriah Heep announce the passing of our friend the amazing Trevor Bolder, who has passed away after his long fight with cancer. Trevor was an all time great, one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, and one of the finest and most influential bass players that Britain ever produced.

His long time membership of Uriah Heep brought the band’s music, and Trevor’s virtuosity and enthusiasm, to hundreds of thousands of fans across the world. He joined the band in 1976 and, barring one short break, was a fixture until his ill health forced him to take a step back early this year.

Mick Box said, “Trevor was a ‘World Class’ bass player, singer & songwriter, and more importantly a World Class friend. He will be sadly missed by family, friends and rock fans all over the world. We are all numb to the core”.

“I had the great pleasure of knowing Trevor for the best part of 30 years, he was one of my idols growing up, I got to know him when Uriah Heep opened for DL on the Pyromania tour in 1983 and we became firm friends. I stayed with him, he stayed with me and we recorded and toured together as The Cybernauts. For myself & Phil it’s devastating because we were looking forward to finishing up some new Cybernauts recording pretty soon, that may now not happen, but our real thoughts right now are with his family. TB was one of the good guys, I’m sure Mick Box & the guys in Heep feel the same way, we have lost a brother, a great bass player, a funny, funny man who lit up any room he walked into. I guess now, him & Ronno have a bit of catching up to do…RIP my friend,” said Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot