October 28 [10:00 EDT] -- Glen Buxton, the guitarist who co-founded Alice Cooper's first band in the early '70s and played on many of Cooper's classic albums, died earlier this month.

Buxton died on October 19 in Clarion, Iowa. of complications from pneumonia and emphysema. He was 49.

The guitarist first joined Cooper in the Phoenix-based band the Earwigs. After stints in Phoenix and Los Angeles proved unsuccessful, the band (now under the name Alice Cooper) moved to Detroit where they finally scored a major label record deal. Buxton went on to play on such classic Cooper albums as "Billion Dollar Babies," "Killer," and their major label debut, "Love It To Death.

Cooper went solo and the group disbanded in 1974, but Buxton re-entered the music world briefly in 1985 with the Arizona-based band Virgin.