Coroner: Keith Emerson killed himself with a gun

Keith Emerson, the 1970s-era rock composer and keyboardist found dead last week, committed suicide by gun shot, the Los Angeles coroner's office reported.

Ed Winter, spokesman for the county Medical Examiner's Office, said Monday the autopsy confirmed the cause of death was a shot from a .38 revolver. He said the death was ruled a suicide.

Emerson, one-third and co-founder of the influential British band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, was found dead early Friday when his longtime companion, Mari Kawaguchi, 52, returned home to their condominium in Santa Monica, Calif.

Winter said the autopsy report on Emerson, 71, showed he suffered from heart disease and depression.

Carl Palmer, another member of the band, eulogized his friend and said on his website that he was organizing a tribute concert in June.

Palmer announced Emerson's death on his website on Friday.

"Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come. He was a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz."

Emerson's next-of-kin were listed as his two sons from a previous marriage.

EL&P was acclaimed in the 1970s for its orchestral approach to rock, drawing on classical and jazz styles and employing complicated rhythms and chords. It was also dismissed by traditional rock critics as pompous and over-the-top. But the band helped open audiences to the idea that rock music could be more than just three guitar chords and dance beats.

The band was founded in 1970 and broke up in 1979, reunited in 1991, later disbanded again and reunited one last time for a 2010 tour. In between, Emerson, a classically trained musician and a child prodigy, continued to compose music and perform, sometimes solo and other times with various musicians

Kawaguchi told the Associated Press that before his death, Emerson had been working with symphonies, including two in Germany and Japan, and was about to embark on a short tour in Japan starting on April 14 with his band. His work included a classical piano concerto.

She tweeted Monday a link to a YouTube video of one of his compositions, written on the day of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, she said.

Contributing: The Associated Press