QUEENSRŸCHE's MICHAEL WILTON On DAVID BOWIE: 'His Music Got Me Through Torment And Problems In Youth'

QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton has paid tribute to David Bowie, who died on January 10, two days after his 69th birthday. He told Journal Star: "Oh, man, [Bowie] was a huge, huge influence on me. I had a wide palate of music that I grew up listening to, and he was part of my sonic landscape. And to tell you the truth, [the news of his death] still hasn't hit me yet and I don't know when it's going to hit me. His music got me through torment and problems in youth and days gone by. It's such a sad loss. A guy that most everyone lived up to. He was the man."

According to reports from insiders in the David Bowie camp, the British singer, songwriter, actor and fashion icon died from liver cancer, after suffering from a handful heart attacks in recent years.

Bowie died following a private 18-month battle against the disease. Stage director Ivo van Hove, who had been working with Bowie on his musical "Lazurus" revealed to The Independent that he knew Bowie was ill for "about a year."

Bowie biographer Wendy Leigh went on to tell the BBC that musician's recent health woes were actually quite extensive. "He didn't just battle cancer," she said. "He had six heart attacks in recent years. I got this from somebody very close to him."

QUEENSRŸCHE's latest album, "Condition Hüman", debuted at No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart, having shifted 14,000 equivalent album units in the week ending October 8.

The Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

"Condition Hüman" was released on October 2, 2015 via Century Media.