George Scott, baritone singer and founding member of veteran gospel group the Blind Boys of Alabama, died Wednesday at age seventy-five. He had been suffering from diabetes and a heart condition, which forced him to take a hiatus from the multi-Grammy-winning group last year.

"We're grateful to the Lord for letting us have George for as long as we did," lead singer Clarence Fountain said. "He and I grew up together and sang together from little boys to old men. George was a great singer. He could sing any part in a song."

Scott, Fountain and three of their schoolmates formed the group, originally called the Happy Land Jubilee Singers, while attending Alabama's Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind in 1937. They landed a deal with Specialty Records and scored their first gospel hit with "I Can See Everybody's Mother But Mine" in 1948.

They will release their new album, Atom Bomb, on Tuesday.