Latter-day Afghan Whigs guitarist Dave Rosser dies at 50

Rock guitarist Dave Rosser, a latter-day member of the Afghan Whigs, died Tuesday after a battle with inoperable colon cancer. He was 50.

“It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our friend, brother and inspiration. Dave Rosser passed away peacefully last evening surrounded by love,” according to a note the group posted Wednesday on its Facebook page. “Thank you to all who kept him in their hearts. He is forever in ours.”

Rosser had long been friends with the hard-hitting rock band’s lead singer, Greg Dulli, and played with him in the Gutter Twins and the Twilight Singers, groups that occupied Dulli after the Whigs went on hiatus in 2001.

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In 2011, the band reunited and performed the following spring in London for the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival and, subsequently, at Lollapalooza.

In 2013, Dulli assembled a revised lineup that included Rosser — bassist John Curley being the only remaining original member — to perform with R&B-pop star Usher at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, that year.

The Whigs released their first new album in 16 years in 2014, “Do to the Beast,” just in time for an appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

Rosser’s illness became the focal point of a pair of benefit concerts the band announced in November and staged in December in New Orleans and Los Angeles, for which the act performed its 1996 album, “Black Love,” in its entirety.

“Dave Rosser has been my close friend and bandmate for over a decade now,” Dulli wrote at the time. “By doing these shows for him we hope to ease any financial stress he may face as he pursues treatment to combat his illness.”

Among the guests who joined the group for those shows were Ani DiFranco, Mark Lanegan, Moby, C.C. Adcock & the Lafayette Marquis, Morning 40 Federation, King James & the Special Men and Carina Round.

In spite of his cancer, Rosser contributed to the Whigs’ latest album, “In Spades,” which was released in May.

“I just finished the first six months of chemo and am taking a break,” Rosser told Guitar World magazine around the time the album was released. “I’m feeling pretty good and my spirits are good. I record a lot at the house and have been making a lot of music with friends. I’m staying busy and have purpose. I’ll try to get out and meet the band on a few stops in Europe where they’ll be for a few days.”

Details on Rosser’s survivors or plans for a memorial service were not immediately available.

randy.lewis@latimes.com

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