Iron Butterfly drummer Ron Bushy dies at 79

Ron Bushy, the drummer of classic hard rock outfit Iron Butterfly has died at 79.

The band announced the news on their website Sunday.

"Ron Bushy, our beloved legendary drummer of Iron Butterfly, has passed away peacefully, with his wife Nancy by his side, at 12:05am on August 29th at UCLA Santa Monica Hospital," the band said in a statement. "All three of his daughters were also with him. He was a real fighter. He was born Dec 23, 1941. He will be deeply missed!"

Bushy was a member of the band – best known for its 17-minute song "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" – beginning in San Deigo, Calif., in the 1960s.

"After our tour, we went straight into Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, L.I. Don Caselle was the engineer," Bushy told Vinyl Writer about the song earlier this year. "We set up our equipment and Don says, 'Guys, why don't you just start playing and let me get some mic levels.' We decided let's do 'Vida'... we played the entire song without stopping. To make a long story short, when we finished, he said, 'Guys, come into the control room.' We listened to it and were blown away."

Although there were lineup changes in Iron Butterfly over the years, he appeared on all of the rock outfit's albums, including 1968's Heavy, 1969's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, and Ball, 1970's Metamorphosis, 1975's Scorching Beauty, and 1976's Sun and Steel.

The band first broke up in 1971, but was later reformed in the same decade by Bushy, and guitarist. Erik Braunn.

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