Former Emerson, Lake & Palmer drummer Carl Palmer has issued a public statement honoring the life and legacy of his longtime bandmate Greg Lake.

As previously reported, Lake died yesterday, ending what a band rep described as a "long and stubborn" battle with cancer. His death is the second to hit the ELP camp in 2016; in March, Lake and Palmer's fellow co-founder, Keith Emerson, died after a struggle against depression and a degenerative nerve condition.

"It is with great sadness that I must now say goodbye to my friend and fellow band-mate, Greg Lake," begins Palmer's statement. "Greg’s soaring voice and skill as a musician will be remembered by all who knew his music and recordings he made with ELP and King Crimson. I have fond memories of those great years we had in the 1970s and many memorable shows we performed together. Having lost Keith this year as well, has made this particularly hard for all of us."

In addition to their decades together in ELP, Lake and Palmer reunited briefly during the trio's '80s hiatus when Lake temporarily stepped in for Asia frontman John Wetton between that band's second and third albums. More recently, they sat together for an interview with Newsweek, looking back on their time with Emerson. Lake — more correctly than anyone knew at the time — predicted he'd never perform any ELP material in concert again, but as Palmer noted in his statement after Lake's passing, the music lives on.

"As Greg sang at the end of Pictures at an Exhibition, 'death is life,'" concluded Palmer. "His music can now live forever in the hearts of all who loved him."

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