Levon Helm, of 'Band,' in 'final stages' of cancer

Legendary musician Levon Helm, who was part of The Band, is "in the final stages of his battle with cancer," according to a statement his family posted on his website.
Helm, 71, was known for his soulful voice and for his involvement in The Band as drummer and backing vocals.
His daughter, Amy, and wife Sandy posted the following message on his website:

 "Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey,"   Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration... he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage…

Helm was previously diagnosed with throat cancer -- on his vocal chords -- in 1998, CBS News reported. The disease nearly took away his voice, leaving him able to speak at just a whisper.
Helm was a smoker, and he smoked as many as three packs every day, according to CBS News.
"I think there's that secret little spot back there in your mind where you know something's wrong, but you don't want to admit it," Helm told the Albany Times Union in 2000. "You put it off, you know. But my family and friends made me go to the doctor, and that's when you start dealing with it."
 
Arkansas-born Helm was the only non-Canadian member of the Hawks, a group that first backed early rocker Ronnie Hawkins, and then gained fame in the mid-1960s accompanying Bob Dylan when the singer and songwriter "went electric" to the consternation of many hardcore folk music fans who'd previously supported him.
The Band worked closely with Dylan after he went into seclusion following a near-fatal 1966 motorcycle accident, recording a batch of influential songs that were widely bootlegged and only surfaced in official form in 1975 as "The Basement Tapes." The Band released its first album on its own in 1968, "Music from Big Pink," to broad critical acclaim. It included one of the group's signature songs "The Weight." It followed with the even more highly lauded sophomore album "The Band," which included "Up On Cripple Creek," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Rag Mama Rag."
As one of three lead singers for the band, along with Richard Manuel and Rick Danko, Helm was the dominant voice on such signature songs as "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Rag Mama Rag," "Ophelia," "Don't Do It" and "Daniel and the Sacred Harp." Manuel committed suicide in 1986 and Danko died of drug-related heart failure in 1999.
Members of the Band decided in 1976 to quit touring, and threw a gala final concert they called "The Last Waltz," which was captured on film by director Martin Scorsese.