The beloved musician-turned-DJ had been battling a serious illness for some time, and his former manager and best friend David Spero confirms to 3News the local entertainment legend passed away in his sleep Friday night at the age of 72. WNCX latter wrote that Stanley had been battling lung cancer for the past seven months "with the same strength and dignity he carried throughout his life."

Born Michael Stanley Gee, Stanley grew up in Northeast Ohio, graduating first from Rocky River High School and then Hiram College. Although he went to Hiram on a baseball scholarship, Stanley quickly found his calling in music. He played in a band that was first called The Tree Stumps, then Silk, and was able to secure his first record contract in 1969. Record executives soon changed his name from Michael Gee to Michael Stanley.

In 1974, Stanley put together the band that would take his name and catapult him to success. The Michael Stanley Band, or MSB for short, would record 11 studio albums and set concert attendance records at the Richfield Coliseum and Blossom Music Center.

"I didn’t get into this whole thing to be the front man of MSB or whatever," Stanley told 3News' Monica Robins in 2014. "I got in it to be a songwriter. That's what I wanted to do.".......

RIP Michael Stanley and the MSB.