According to Rolling Stone, Billy Conway of Morphine was confirmed dead on Sunday at the age of 65. Conway’s friend and bandmate Jeffrey Foucalt stated that the cause of death was cancer. 

The band Vapors of Morphine, who Conway performed with alongside other former members, told Rolling Stone, “We are devastated to learn that our brother, Morphine drummer Billy Conway, has passed, finally succumbing to cancer after a long fight. Our deepest condolences go to his family and friends. Billy Conway was one of the best drummers America produced in the second half of the twentieth century. With his uncanny empathy and sensitivity, his dedication to simplicity and restraint, and his impossible spiritual power, he played the song, never the instrument, and when he played he was undeniable. He incarnated a ferocious love. But any description of his accomplishment misses the full measure of the man. Billy was a great soul. He was relentlessly kind and open-hearted. He was soft-spoken, slow to anger, quick to laugh, and to praise. He was gentle in all things, strange and beloved, magnetic and restless, and somehow haunted. People who met him once would remember and remark him, and it was his odd magic to be the soul in whose presence wisdom might reveal itself.”

Vapors of Morphine released their latest album, Fear And Fantasy, in October.