At one point he was the highest paid session drummer in the business, co-wrote Laylah with Eric Clapton and kept the beat for Gordon Lightfoot on his classic “Sundown.”

Jim Gordon has died while serving time in prison in California for killing his mother.

He played on the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album and recorded with the likes of George Harrison, Steely Dan and Carly Simon.

However, he struggled with with mental illness and was sentenced to 16 years to life for killing his mother in 1983.

Jim Gordon was 77.