Legendary rock guitarist and producer Rick Derringer, has passed away at the age of 77.

His death was confirmed by his wife in a statement to TMZ.

According to Genda Derringer, the American guitarist passed away “peacefully” on May 26 after having his life support removed following a “medical episode.”

Rick Derringer’s close friend, Tony Wilson, later shared the news on social media.

Richard Derringer had a prolific career in music, spanning more than six decades as a performer, lyricist and producer.

He became known as the leader of the musical group McCoys in the 1960s.

Their first single in 1965 “Hang On Sloopy” went to number one in the charts and has been described as a garage rock classic.

The McCoys disbanded in 1969, but not before releasing more hits, including “Fever“, “Hang On, Come On“, etc.

Rick Derringer released his first solo album “All American Boy” in 1973, which included his biggest solo hit, “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo.”

As a musician, he participated in several Steely Dan classics, including “Show Biz Kids“, “Chain Lightning” and “My Rival“.

Later, he played guitar on two of Cindy Loper’s solo albums “True Colors” and “A Night To Remember” and appeared as a member of her touring band.

At the same time, he was a member of the tour.
In 1971, he was featured on Alice Cooper’s album “Killer“.

In 1983, he recorded the guitar part for two great ballads: the Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing At All” and Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart“.

The following year, he also appeared on Barbra Streisand’s “Left in the Dark“.

Elsewhere in the 1980s, Derringer produced the first six albums of Yankovic, including the Grammy-winning Michael Jackson parody “Eat It“.

In 1985, he co-produced and wrote several songs for WWE‘s (then WWF) first compilation album The Wrestling Album. Among the songs he wrote was superstar Hulk Hogan’s title song, “Real American.”

He continued his prolific solo career and in the 2010s he did three world tours with Ringo Starr & his All-Starr Band in Europe, Russia, South America, Mexico and the U.S.

In 2014 he performed as part of Peter Frampton’s Guitar Circus tour with B.B. King, Don Felder, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick and others.