ROKY ERICKSON, a brilliant and troubled Texas musician whose band The 13th Floor Elevators pioneered the psych-rock genre, has died, according to a public Facebook post by his brother, Mikel. “The world lost a huge light and an incredible soul,” another brother, Sumner Erickson, told the Austin-American Statesman. “It wasn’t the easiest life, but he’s free of all that now.”

The Statesman also released an official statement from Erickson’s management, though no cause of death was given at press time. “Erickson had a visionary zeal rarely seen in 1965 when he co-founded The 13th Floor Elevators,” the statement read. “The band’s original songs, many written with lyricist Tommy Hall, coupled with Erickson’s super-charged vocals and guitar, sparked the psychedelic music revolution in the mid-1960s, and led to a new role of what rock could be. Erickson never wavered from that path, and while he faced incredible challenges at different points in his life, his courage always led him on to new musical adventures, one he continued without compromise his entire life.”

Roger Kynard Erickson was born July 15, 1947; he took up piano and age 5 and guitar at age 10; and he formed The 13th Floor Elevators when he was 18. The pioneering group released four albums between 1966 and 1969, with their debut LP, “The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators,” yielding their only chart hit, “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” which went to No. 55. However, Erickson’s promising career was soon derailed, and The Elevators’ original lineup would not play again until they reunited for Austin’s Levitation festival in May 2015.

In 1968, Erickson was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and sent to a Houston psychiatric hospital, where he involuntarily received electro-shock treatment. A year later, he was arrested in Austin for possession of a single marijuana joint and entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity in order or avoid a potential 10-year prison sentence.

Erickson was initially dispatched to the Austin State Hospital, but after he attempted to escape several times, he was moved to Rusk State Hospital, where he underwent additional electroconvulsive therapy and Thorazine treatments. Erickson was not released from Rusk State until 1972.

Erickson continued to make music after his discharge, but was largely reclusive in the ‘70s and ‘80s. However, his career resurgence, thanks to a growing cult following and a new appreciation for his genius, began in the ‘90s, starting with Sire Records’ 1990 tribute album “Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson,” which featured covers of his songs by R.E.M., ZZ Top, the Jesus and Mary Chain, T Bone Burnett, Butthole Surfers, Julian Cope, Primal Scream, and others.

Erickson also collaborated with his younger admirers. In 2008, he performed 13th Floor Elevators songs for the first time in decades with fellow Austinites the Black Angels as his backing band, and that same year he appeared on the BatcatEP by Scottish post-rock outfit Mogwai. In 2010, he released his first album of new material in 14 years (and what turned out to be his final solo studio album), “True Love Cast Out All Evil,” backed by Austin indie heroes Okkervil River.

(SD-Agencies)