LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – MAY 04: Bernie Marsden performs on stage during An Evening For Walter Trout at Shepherds Bush Empire on May 4, 2014 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by C Brandon/Redferns via Getty Images)

Whitesnake’s original guitarist and one of the band’s founding members, Bernie Marsden has died at the age of 72.

Among the numerous songs he penned, he co-wrote the band’s massive 1987 hit, “Here I Go Again” with David Coverdale.

Coverdale shared a tribute to his former bandmate and wrote: “I’ve just woken up to the awful news that my old friend and former Snake Bernie Marsden has passed. “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.”

As a recording musician, he name appears on a hundreds of albums. Marsden’s first band, UFO put him on stage with Ringo Starr in Monaco. He played the Beacon Theatre in New York with The Allman Brothers Band and he also wrote and played with Motorhead. He occasionally still played with Whitesnake.

His family released a statement that he passed peacefully and was surrounded by his wife and two daughters at the time of his death.