Beach Boys member Jeffrey Foskett died on Monday at the age of 67 after a battle with anaplastic thyroid cancer.
“I’m so heartbroken that my dear friend Jeff Foskett has passed,” Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson wrote in an Instagram post on Monday. “Jeff was always there for me when we toured and we couldn’t have done it without him.”
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“Jeff was one of the most talented guys I ever knew. He was a great musical leader and guitarist and he could sing like an angel,” Wilson continued. “I first met Jeff in 1976 when he knocked on my door in Bel Air and I invited him in, and we were friends ever since.”
“I don’t know what else to say. Love and Mercy to Jeff’s family and friends, we will remember him forever,” he added.
Al Jardine, another co-founder of Beach Boys, wrote that he and his wife, Mary Ann, “are so deeply saddened hearing about the passing of our good friend Jeffrey Foskett, who we’ve known for many many years.”
“Jeff always kept in touch with us, no matter which Beach Boys hat he was wearing,” their statement continued. “He was so talented on so many different levels but it was his wonderful sense of humor that kept him balanced and helped him navigate all the hard knocks you get in the music business.”
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“Jeff had a contagious positive spirit and never gave up hope. God bless his beautiful spirit and zest for life, we will really miss him and cherish all the great times we shared together,” they concluded. “Keeping his wife Diana, his daughters and family and fans everywhere in our thoughts. Rest in peace Jeff and thanks for always making us smile.”
Foskett was deemed the “vice principal of the Beach Boys” by the band’s core members, and was a rare musician, given that he had found favor in all of Beach Boy’s sometimes competing camps over the decades, according to a report by Variety.
He was in Brian Wilson’s solo band from 1998 to 2014, and was in Mike Love’s Beach Boys for a long time before and after that, from 1981 through 1998, and again from 2015 until 2019, when he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
“I lost more than a friend; I lost a part of my soul, my history – Jeffrey Foskett, my dearest friend, brother, and the brightest light in my life, has left this world,” actor John Stamos wrote in an Instagram post.
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“This morning, when I got the news, uncontrollable tears streamed down my face, a physical manifestation of the heartache within,” the Full House star continued. “Jeff was more than just a friend; he was the one who brought the harmonies of The Beach Boys into my life, and with them, a spectrum of color and joy I never dreamed would be part of my life.”
“He was a vibrant force, a radiant soul whose laughter and wisdom touched everyone he met. He was an older brother in spirit, guiding, lifting, and loving me, sometimes more than I thought I deserved,” Stamos added.
Foskett, who once said “I don’t often post on social,” last took to Instagram on March 4, when he posted a video of himself ringing a bell at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after spending four years in treatment there. He called it “the best four years of my life.”
“These people have given me what no one else on earth could have… LIFE,” Foskett said, praising the doctors and nurses there. “Some of the past four years has been trying (I guess that’s why it’s called a clinical trial). It tries your body, mind and spirit but it has left me THRIVING and most importantly able to meet my grandson Domenic.”
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You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
