A great friend, brother musician and trooper, the lead guitarist with legendary rock band the Stooges will be dearly missed, especially by singer Iggy Pop, who said Ron Asheton was his best friend.

"I am in shock," the Stooges singer said in a statement in response to the news of Asheton's sudden death. "He was my best friend."

In a more detailed declaration issued by the band management and members, Iggy Pop, Scott Asheton, Mike Watt, Asheton's mates acknowledged the loss of a "great friend, brother, musician and trooper."

"For all that knew him behind the facade of Mr. Cool & Quirky, he was a kind-hearted, genuine, warm person who always believed that people meant well even if they did not," the statement continued.

The 60-year-old musician was found dead Tuesday morning in his Ann Arbor, Michigan, home after police received a phone call from one of Asheton's associated saying he hadn't heard from him in a few days. According to police sergeant Brad Hill, authorities are still investigating the cause of death, which appears to be from a heart attack. Foul play is not suspected. Autopsy and toxicology results are pending.

One of the original members of the rock band fronted by Iggy Pop in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Asheton will be remembered by people, who had the pleasure to work with him, as the "The Guitar God," an idol to follow and inspire others.

Asheton and his brother, drummer Scott Asheton, never became the household names the way frontman Iggy Pop did, but Asheton's powerful, distorted guitar riffs on songs like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "T.V. Eye" were a hallmark of the group's sound.

Ranked as Number 29 on Rolling Stone's '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time', Asheton's "technically adept but also beautifully raw" style was heavily influenced by free jazz and created "beauty out of noise," said Brian Cogan, a punk-music historian at Molloy College on New York's Long Island.

Founded in 1967, the group managed to release a self-titled debut album, in 1969, 1970's "Fun House" and 1973's "Raw Power" but they weren't big commercial successes, although they later became a major influence on punk, post-punk and alternative rock. The band's shocking live performances, during which Pop was known to cut himself or vomit on stage, achieved legendary status.

In early 1974, shadowed by Pop's heroin addiction, the group split and Pop went on to score solo hits such as "Lust for Life," "Real Wild Child" and "The Passenger." Asheton continued to play his guitar for bands including the New Order, New Race, Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival and act in several low-budget flicks.

The band, which regrouped in 2003 for a series of gigs, is nominated for induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with inductees set to be announced later this month. The Stooges also released a new album "The Weirdness" in 2007. They promoted the album with a lengthy tour, including raucous stops at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin and Lollapalooza in Chicago.