'I Love Rock and Roll' co-writer Alan Merrill dead at 69 due to complications from coronavirus

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Alan Merrill, known for co-writing the Joan Jett hit song "I Love Rock and Roll," died on March 29 in New York due to complications from the coronavirus. He was 69. 

His daughter Laura Merrill said on her Facebook account that he died in the morning.

"I was given 2 minutes to say my goodbyes before I was rushed out. He seemed peaceful and as I left there was still a glimmer of hope that he wouldn’t be a ticker on the right hand side of the CNN/Fox news screen," she wrote. "I walked 50 blocks home still with hope in my heart. The city that I knew was empty. I felt I was the only person here and perhaps in many ways I was. By the time I got in the doors to my apartment I received the news that he was gone."

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Merrill said her father was in good spirits recently. She went to a show of his about two weeks ago and had taken a photograph of him for his new album, Merrill said.

Musician Alan Merrill has died at age 69 due to complications from the coronavirus.  (Neil H Kitson/Redferns)

"He played down the ‘cold' he thought he had," she said. "I’ve made a million jokes about the ‘Rona' and how it’ll "getcha"... boy do I feel stupid."

Jett scored a major hit with "I Love Rock and Roll" in 1982. Alan Merrill wrote the song for his band The Arrows and recorded it in 1975.

On her Twitter account, Jett wrote: "I’ve just learned of the awful news that Alan Merrill has passed. My thoughts and love go to his family, friends and music community as a whole. I can still remember watching the Arrows on TV in London and being blown away by the song that screamed hit to me. With deep gratitude and sadness, wishing him a safe journey to the other side."

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Merrill was born in New York and grew up in Switzerland, Los Angeles and Japan before starting his music career in New York.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.