BRITISH rock icon John Sykes has died aged 65.

The Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake guitarist passed away after a battle with cancer.

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A statement on his social media channels said on Monday: “It is with great sorrow we share that John Sykes has passed away after a hard fought battle with cancer.

“He will be remembered by many as a man with exceptional musical talent but for those who didn’t know him personally, he was a thoughtful, kind, and charismatic man whose presence lit up the room.

“He certainly marched to the beat of his own drum and always pulled for the underdog.

“In his final days, he spoke of his sincere love and gratitude for his fans who stuck by him through all these years.

“While the impact of his loss is profound and the mood somber, we hope the light of his memory will extinguish the shadow of his absence.”

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Sykes was born in Reading, Berkshire, before his family moved to Ibiza, Spain, for three years, then returned to the UK.

He took an interest in the guitar aged 14 after his dad introduced him to Eric Clapton’s licks.

On moving to Blackpool, he joined band Streetfighter.

Sykes left to record two albums with Tygers of Pan Tang – titled Spellbound and Crazy Nights – in 1981, before co-founding hard rock supergroup Blue Murder with Tony Franklin and Carmine Appice.

He went onto appear on Thin Lizzy’s 1983 top five album Thunder and Lightning – the last featuring front man Phil Lynott, who died aged 36 in 1986.

Sykes had also joined Lynott on a tour of Europe with a band dubbed The Three Musketeers.

He went on to join Whitesnake and contributed to two albums, beginning with 1984’s Slide It In.

Sykes would co-write and perform 1987’s eight-times platinum international top 10 hit self-titled album Whitesnake, with hits including Still Of The Night and Is This Love.

However, his relationship with lead singer David Coverdale was always difficult – despite the front man having headhunted Sykes.

“John was and is an incredible talent,” Coverdale later said.

“Our musical chemistry was great, but it didn’t work personally. The truth of the matter is no matter how incredible of an album that we made together, we were unable to connect as people.”

Sykes took over as the lead vocalist for Thin Lizzy when the band reunited in 1996, releasing One Night Only in 2000.

And he remained in the line up until 2009.

Speaking about the late Lynott, Sykes told Melodic Rock in 1999: “He wrote damn good songs.

“It’s just a great pleasure to go out and play and think of him. Like a group of old veterans, we tell a few lies and have a few laughs, go and play the tunes and it’s great.”

Sykes went on to release five solo albums, including Bad Boy Live! in 2004.

He married Jennifer Brooks-Sykes in 1989 and they had three sons, before separating in 1999.

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