Bob Mayo, who played guitar and keyboards with Peter Frampton on and off over the span of twenty-five years, died of a heart attack in Basel, Switzerland, yesterday. Mayo was touring Europe with Frampton when he suffered a heart attack; he was fifty-two.

"Bob was like a brother to me," Frampton said. "I have lost a close personal friend and a talented, professional and outstanding musician."

The New York-born Mayo joined Frampton in the mid-Seventies and played with the guitar ace on his legendary 1976 album Frampton Comes Alive. Following 1979's Where I Should Be, Mayo took some time off from recording and touring with Frampton to do session work. He quickly fell in with Joe Walsh and Foreigner, playing on several of their mid-Eighties recordings, including 4 and Agent Provocateur, two of the latter's biggest hits.

In 1992, Mayo rejoined Frampton for a tour that didn't really end. He appeared on Frampton Comes Alive 2 (1995) and Live in Detroit (1999) and also played on Frampton's 2003 studio album, Now.

"I've always loved to play live," Frampton said last year. "And it helps that [I have] such a great band, I don't have to put a band together every year to tour. Bob's been with me since before Comes Alive. John Regan's been on bass since 1979. So if it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's like a club more than a band. If any one of the band members isn't available, I don't look for someone else. [We have] an unwritten telepathic thing that goes on after awhile."

Due to Mayo's death, Frampton cancelled all of the remaining eleven dates on his European tour. Two dates are scheduled for the U.S. in June, though no word has been given on the status.

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