David Crosby was a tough old bird, touring full-time until tendonitis finally forced him off the road two years ago, then moving into the recording studio, while tweeting, often wittily, with a devoted readership—a steady bustle of activity despite the tendonitis and three heart attacks, and liver problems, too.

But now he’s dead, at 81, his passing marked the usual way: “A cause of death has not been revealed,” reports Variety, along with this:

The death came as a surprise to those who followed his very active Twitter account, which he’d kept tweeting on as recently as Wednesday. One of Crosby’s final tweets Wednesday was to make a typically jocular comment about heaven: “I heard the place is overrated… cloudy.”

Despite that jest, his mind was clearly on this world, or was five weeks ago: “So I played with some friends the day before yesterday and spent today sing with two really good friends and ……hmmmmmm….dare I say it ? …I think I’m starting yet another band and going back out to play live ……”