Prostate Cancer

By the time the guitarist-songwriter-tattooist was diagnosed with cancer in 2002, it was inoperable.

Last October Wells told The Age that all Australian men should have regular check-ups for the disease.

"If they find it early, they can fix it.

If I had gone in earlier, it would have saved me from a whole lot of pain and misery." His Rose Tattoo bandmate Angry Anderson said Wells was the greatest male influence on his life.

"He was the genuine article.

On guitar, he was like a trapeze artist, he just pushed and pushed and pushed." Triple R's Neil Rogers, who interviewed Wells many times on his music show The Australian Mood, said Wells was Australia's greatest slide guitarist.

"Pete mattered because he was not only a key part of Australian rock'n'roll history, he was in fact Australian rock'n'roll personified." A posting on Rose Tattoo's official website read: "Pete's music will live on for the inspiration of generations to come." In October a who's who of Australian rock artists, including Paul Kelly, Tim Rogers, Tex, Don & Charlie, Ian Rilen and the Beasts of Bourbon paid tribute to the guitarist in a concert at the Palace in St Kilda.

Wells was too weak to play with Rose Tattoo, but he joined them on their song Bad Boy for Love and sang AC/DC's defiant anthem Ride On with the Beasts of Bourbon.

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