(CNN) – Jack Sonni, former guitarist of the British rock band Dire Straits, has died in the last few hours, the group announced on social networks.
“#JackSonni rest in peace,” the band wrote this Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter, alongside a black-and-white photo of the guitarist. He was 68 years old.
Sonni, who was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, met founding members and guitarists David and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits while working at a guitar shop in Manhattan in 1978, according to a Dire Straits blog post published by the band on social media shared across networks.
The Knopflers had founded the band the year before with bassist John Illsley and drummer Pick Withers.
Affectionately known as “the other guitarist” – a label he accepted in his own website biography – Sonni began playing with the band, including on the internationally successful album “Brothers in Arms” and later on tour.
After its release in 1985, the album spent 14 weeks at number one in the United Kingdom and nine weeks at number one on the Billboard Top 200. According to the band’s official website, more than 30 million copies have been sold worldwide. “Brothers in Arms” is also the first album to sell more than a million copies in CD format, according to Billboard.
“I am so sorry to hear the sad news that Jack Sonni has passed away. We enjoyed having him with us on the Brothers in Arms tour, great memories,” Illsley wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
In addition to his music career, Sonni was also an author and hosted the podcast “The Leisure Class with Jack Sonni.”