Country icon Glen Campbell—famous for such songs at “Rhinestone Cowboy and “Wichita Lineman”—has died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. The singer was 81.

One of country music’s biggest stars in the ’60s and ’70s, Campbell was born the seventh of 12 children to John Wesley, a sharecropper in Arkansas. Picking up the guitar in his teens, he formed his first band, the Western Wranglers, in 1958 at age 22.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1960 to work as a session musician (he played on records by Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and—believe it or not—the Monkees), Campbell launched a solo career with the 1961 single “Turn Around, Look at Me”.

It wasn’t until 1967, though, that things would take off with a sudden string of hits, including “Gentle on My Mind”, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, and “Wichita Lineman”.

By the time the ’70s rolled around, Campbell was hosting his own wildly popular television show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, which featured such heavy-hitting country giants as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings. He also moved into acting with roles in movies like True Grit.

Campbell’s status as one of country’s all-time greats was solidified by ’70s smashes like “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “Southern Nights”. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

The singer was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2011. After hitting the road on what was dubbed the Goodbye Tour, he booked studio time in Nashville to record Adios, the last of his more than 70 albums.

Campbell’s final tour, and battle with Alzheimer’s, was documented in the critically lauded 2014 film Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me. 

Life wasn’t all hit records, sunshine, and champagne for the singer. As his fame grew he developed severe alcoholism, as well as a serious cocaine addiction.

He told the Telegraph that he finally quit the morning after a binge in Las Vegas: “I didn’t know who I was. It was really, really strange. Nobody else was there, but somebody was talking; it was if God had sent an angel to rescue me. I didn’t want any whisky, any drugs, anything. That was the end of it.”

Campbell leaves behind eight children from his four different wives.