The music world mourned the loss of one its most creative drummers following the death of former Devo member Alan Myers last week.

The percussionist with the band who spearheaded the New Wave trend in the US in the 1970s and early 80s lost his battle with brain cancer on 24 June at age 58.

Myers was the third and most famous drummer of the group that hailed from Ohio and made beats like Whip It and Freedom of Choice the theme songs of a generation.

According to Us Weekly, his death was announced by jazz musician and good friend Ralph Carney, who wrote on his Facebook page: “I just got some bad news. Alan Myers passed yesterday from cancer. He was Devo's best drummer and one of the first people to teach me about jazz. I cry…”

Myers' former band mate bassist and founding member Gerald Casale told The Associated Press that he brought the group together and had cemented their signature sound on album's like 1976's Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

“We were mostly in basements and garages writing songs. It was Alan that brought everything to life,” Casale explained. “That was the catalyst where everything clicked. People watching him thought we were using a drum machine. Nobody had ever drummed like that.”

While Myers left the group in 1986 after 10 years because of creative differences due to the increased use of electronic drum machines, his legacy lived on long after that.

Surprisingly, he went from rock star to blue collar worker and took a job as an electrician in Los Angeles. Since 2005 he had played improvisational music with his wife, Christine Myers, in the group Skyline Electric. He had also performed with his daughter, Laena Geronimo, in the experimental ensemble Swahili Blonde, reported Rolling Stone.