ABBA’s long-term guitarist Lasse Wellander has died. The Swedish musician, who played on some of the iconic pop group’s biggest hits throughout the ’70s and ’80s, died on Friday, April 7 after a battle with cancer, his family announced. Wellander was 70.
“It is with indescribable sadness that we have to announce that our beloved Lasse has fallen asleep. Lasse recently fell ill in what turned out to be spread cancer and early on Good Friday he passed away, surrounded by his loved ones,” Wellander’s family shared in a statement posted to his Facebook page Sunday. “You were an amazing musician and humble as few, but above all you were a wonderful husband, father, brother, uncle and grandfather. Kind, safe, caring and loving… and so much more, that cannot be described in words. A hub in our lives, and it’s unbelievable that we now have to live on without you.”
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Born in 1952, Wellander began his career as a guitarist as a child in the early sixties and joined bands local where he lived in Nora, Sweden. He began recording with ABBA in October 1974, per his biography, for their hits “Intermezzo No.1” and “Crazy World.” He went on to become the group’s the Eurovision-winning band’s main guitarist and toured with them in 1975, 1977, 1979, and 1980. The guitarist featured on 24 of the pop group’s recordings and featured on all eight of their albums. He continued working with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus even after the two, along with Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog went their separate ways in 1982.
Outside of ABBA, Wellander released seven solo albums, two of which entered the Top 40 album charts in the mid-1980s. He also helped record the soundtrack for Mamma Mia at the Atlantis Studio in Stockholm. In 2005, The Royal Swedish Academy of Music awarded him the Albin Hagström Memorial Award and in 2018, Wellander was honored with the Swedish Musicians Union’s Studioräven Award for his work as a session musician.
In a statement shared with CNN, ABBA remembered Wellander as “a dear friend, a fun guy and a superb guitarist,” adding that “the importance of his creative input in the recording studio as well as his rock solid guitar work on stage was immense.” The band continued, “We mourn his tragic and premature death and remember the kind words, the sense of humour, the smiling face, the musical brilliance of the man who played such an integral role in the ABBA story. He will be deeply missed and never forgotten.”
