Syd Barrett, a founding member of Pink Floyd who wrote the bulk of the legendary UK rock band's early material, died Friday. He was 60.

The exact cause of death is unknown, although Barrett was known to suffer from diabetes and had battled various forms of mental illness for years, with many fans speculating that his years of heavy psychedelic drug use had sent him over the edge. Barrett had lived a reclusive life since the 1970s, living at his parents' home in Cambridge.

Word of Barrett's death spread today, and the band--David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright--released a statement: "The band [members] are naturally very upset and sad to learn of Syd Barrett's death. Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire."

Barrett's brother Alan also issued a statement today, saying: "He died peacefully at home. There will be a private family funeral in the next few days."

Barrett was the ultimate mystery in a band whose collective mystique was bolstered over the years by decades of infighting, mostly between Waters and Gilmour, who joined the band in 1968, shortly before Barrett left, as a second guitarist.

Artists like David Bowie and Pete Townshend cited Barrett as an influence. In a posting on his Web site today, Bowie wrote: "I can't tell you how sad I feel. Syd was a major inspiration for me. The few times I saw him perform in London at UFO and the Marquee clubs during the sixties will forever be etched in my mind. He was so charismatic and such a startlingly original songwriter. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him. A diamond indeed."

Born Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge on January 6, 1946, the musician took his nickname from a local Cambridge singer named Sid Barrett. A singer, guitarist, and songwriter, Barrett founded Pink Floyd in 1965 along with his fellow Cambridge students Waters, Mason, and Wright. The foursome reportedly named the band after the blues artists Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

Barrett wrote most of the band's early material, including their first singles, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play," as well as their much-acclaimed 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

But heavy LSD use was believed to contribute to Barrett's increasingly erratic behavior, including a concert in San Francisco where he put hair gel on his head and the heat from the stage lights caused it to melt down his face.

Barrett left the band in March 1968, three months after Gilmour's arrival. Despite releasing two solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, to which both Waters and Gilmour contributed, Barrett largely withdrew from the music business entirely.

The band he helped create went on to monumental success, sparked by the release of Dark Side of the Moon in 1973.

Barrett lived on the royalties from early Pink Floyd material and his own solo work for decades, reverting to his birth name and spending most of his time living a quiet life in his mother's suburban house in Cambridge. He was believed to be fond of painting and gardening in recent years.

In 1975, Pink Floyd released the song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" on the album Wish You Were Here. The track is believed to be a tribute to Barrett.

Pink Floyd has sold an estimated 200 million albums worldwide, but a feud between Waters and Gilmour has kept the band from playing together since the early 1980s, except on rare occasions, the most recent of which was Live 8 in the UK a year ago. That performance, deemed by many as the highlight of all of the Live 8 concerts, sparked an initial buzz about a possible reunion, but the band quickly squashed that talk.