Max Merritt - of Max Merritt and the Meteors fame - has died in Los Angeles aged 79.
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Merritt, best known for his 1975 hit Slippin' Away, with his band Max Merritt and The Meteors, died in a Los Angeles hospital after a long fight with a rare auto-immune disease.
Max was born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1941.
He moved to Sydney in 1964 and formed Max Merritt and the Meteors. His first TV appearance in Australia was on Johnny O'Keefe's Song Sing Sing sholw when he performed Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.
In February 1966, Max Merritt and the Meteors were the support act for The Rolling Stones.
The band had hits with Try A Little Tenderness and Western Union Man before Merritt's original song Slipping Away took the band to new heights. The song reached No.2 in Australia and No.5 in New Zealand.
Max Merritt moved to live in the USA in 1977.
In 2007 he was suffered from kidney failure. In the October of that year, the entertainment industry rallied and a concert that raised more than $200,000.
A year later Merritt was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
He s survived by his daughter Kelli, son Josh and three grandchildren.
His death comes less than two weeks after Skyhooks founding member Peter Starkie died in Melbourne after falling off a ladder in Melbourne.
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