John Erhardt, the Ohio musician who played guitar with both Ass Ponys and Wussy, died earlier this week. His longtime bandmate Chuck Cleaver shared the news in a Facebook post on the band’s official page. No cause of death has been revealed.

Erhardt started Ass Ponys with Cleaver in 1988 in Cincinnati; the band released six albums, though Erhardt only played on three of them before leaving the band in 1996. Cleaver started Wussy in 2001, and Erhardt would rejoin his former collaborator as part of the group starting in 2011. Their most recent album, What Heaven Is Like, came out in 2018.

“John gave us a beauty that we’ll never see again. A combination of love, friendship, stability and that amazing swirling sound,” Cleaver wrote in his statement. “Truly a wonder. A backdrop to everything that we are, in the band and in life. To say we’ll miss him is an understatement. It’s not gonna be the same from here on out nor should it. Death’s like that. We’ll continue to keep making up stuff, play it to the best of our abilities and make more records. There will be a hole and we’ll likely leave it that way. You can’t replace some things.”

Read the full statement below.