Rose Tattoo guitarist and founding member Mick Cocks has lost his battle with liver cancer. He passed away in a Sydney hospital, just eight months after being diagnosed with the disease.
“We’re very sad to announce that Rose Tattoo founding member and guitarist Mick Cocks lost his battle against liver cancer and passed away today, on December 22th,” a statement posted on the band’s website yesterday read.
The band’s manager Stephen White called Mick a “true Australian rocker.”
“It is devastating. You know, what can you say though?” he told Fairfax Radio Network. “Mick got ill about a year ago and it was looking pretty good for a while but he got very ill.”
The band’s having a rough trot of late. Mick is the fourth member of the band to die in just three years, following the deaths of Ian Rilen and Pete Wells in 2006 and Lobby Loyde in 2007. My thoughts are with the remaining members of the band, and Mick’s family.
Image source: The Harbour Agency