Vale Alec John such (Bon Jovi)

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Alec John Such, a founding member of iconic rock band Bon Jovi, has died.

He was 70.

No details on when or how he died were immediately available.

"He was an original."

"As a founding member of Bon Jovi, Alec was integral to the formation of the band."

As manager of the Hunka Bunka Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey, Such booked Jon Bon Jovi & The Wild Ones before joining the singer-songwriter's band.

He played with Bon Jovi through the group's heyday in the 1980s.

Such departed the band in 1994, when he was replaced by bassist Hugh McDonald.

He was older than his bandmates, as he remarked years later in an interview for The Asbury Park Press.

"The record company used to lie about my age," he said. "I was 31 when I joined. I was a good 10 years older than the rest of the band. My sister eventually got really mad because the papers would describe her as my older sister when really she was younger."

The age gap was the reason he eventually left, he said.

"When I was 43, I started to get burned out. It felt like work and I didn't want to work. The reason I got into a band to begin with is because I didn't want to work."

He later rejoined the band for its induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

"When Jon Bon Jovi called me up and asked me to be in his band many years ago, I soon realised how serious he was and he had a vision that he wanted to bring us to," Such said at the Hall of Fame induction.

"And I am only too happy to have been a part of that vision."

https://twitter.com/BonJovi/status/1...es%2F101130398

Whilst I never really took to Alec, he played bass on Bon Jovi's first five albums with some very memorable bass lines, like the opening riff to Living on a Prayer or Keep The Faith. Bon Jovi was the band that grabbed me as a teenager and helped establish my love for music and the heavy rock genre, in particular. Alec was an integral part of that sound.

RIP Alec.