Reports of Winter's death surfaced on Wednesday night with American Blues Scene reporting that that several independent sources close to Winter confirmed his passing.

The wife of Winter's collaborator Rick Derringer, Jenda Derringer, also reported his passing on her Facebook page: "We were just told by a reliable source that Johnny has passed."

She later added, "He passes early this morning in Zurich, Switzerland." When asked how it happened, she said, "That I do not know, but he was not in good health and was very frail and weak."

Kid Logic Media confirmed the news early Thursday morning. They sent over the following message, "Texas blues icon Johnny Winter has passed away on July 16, 2014 in his hotel room in Zurich, Switzerland.

"His wife, family and bandmates are all saddened by the loss of one of the world's finest guitarists. An official statement with more details shall be issued at the appropriate time."

Classic Rock reports that Winter was due to release his 19th studio album "Step Back" in September. Winter - elder brother of Edgar - was born in the Mississippi delta and started out playing alongside Muddy Waters, B.B. King and others in his teens. Following the launch of 1968 debut album The Progressive Blues Experiment he signed to Columbia for the largest advance ever paid.

Read their report for more including tributes from Matt Sorum and others - here.

...end