A rock-blues keyboardist who played an integral role in legendary artist Bob Dylan's controversial transition from acoustic to electric folk music just passed away this week.

Barry Goldberg, a keyboard player who backed up Dylan along with numerous other famous artists over the decades, died on Wednesday at the age of 83, Variety reported.

According to his rep, Goldberg's wife, Gail, and son, Aram, were by his side as he died in hospice care following a decade-long battle against non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer.

Decades-long career as a blues keyboardist

Goldberg was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1941 to parents Frank and Nettie Goldberg, and was the grandson of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg.

Per his obituary, Goldberg became part of the blues music scene in Chicago as a teenager and began playing keyboard in support of other artists, including Muddy Waters, before eventually forming bands of his own.

In the early 1960s, he formed The Electric Flag with Mike Bloomfield, Buddy Miles, and Harvey Brooks, and around the same time also teamed up with Steve Miller to form the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band.

Goldberg later launched a solo career in the mid-1970s that stretched for several decades and involved him writing, producing, or performing songs with other well-known blues and rock artists like Percy Sledge, The Ramones, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Gladys Knight, and Neil Young, among others.

Was with Dylan when he transitioned from acoustic to electric

Per Variety, Goldberg was perhaps best known for his association with Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival by way of his group at the time that was known as the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

In a 2022 article for Forward, Goldberg recalled how a producer didn't like him on the keyboards on the first day of the four-day festival, which made the dream-like event a nightmare, if only for a few days, as Dylan himself asked Goldberg and the band to play with him during an unexpected bonus performance on the final day of the festival, Sunday, after Dylan had already performed his anticipated set on Saturday.

That Sunday performance for Dylan with the Butterfield Blues Band backing him turned out to be a controversial turning point for Dylan's career, as it marked the first time that he performed publicly, including the hit "Like a Rolling Stone," with an electric guitar instead of his usual acoustic instrument, and the performance was met with a mixture of cheers and boos from the crowd along with fighting and threats from producers and record company executives.

Variety noted that Dylan and Goldberg became friends and later teamed up again twice, first in 1974 when Dylan helped produce Goldberg's self-titled first solo album, then again in 1990 when Goldberg produced Dylan's version of "People Get Ready" for the soundtrack of the film "Flashback."

Married to his wife since 1971

Variety noted that Goldberg was introduced to his wife, an artist and designer named Gail, in 1971 by his former bandmate Bloomfield, and the couple were soon married that same year, after which they had a son, Aram, who is now a management executive in Los Angeles.

As evidenced by the many tributes to Goldberg on social media, he will be dearly missed by his former colleagues, friends, and fans.