Musician Joan Sebastian died Monday at the age of 64 after a battle with bone cancer.

BBC News reports the Mexican singer, who is also known as "The People's Poet," passed away at his ranch, Juliantla, in the western Mexican state of Guerrero. He had been battling bone cancer since 1999.

At an early age, Sebastian, born Jose Miguel Figueroa, wanted to be a singer and left the Catholic seminary where he was training to become a priest at age 17. During his career, he released more than 50 albums, and some of his most famous songs include "Tatuajes" and "Secreto de Amor."

He was very popular in the United States and Latin America. Later on in his career, he took on acting as he was cast in the Mexican soap opera "Tu y Yo."

Sebastian had eight children, two of which were killed. One was shot dead as he tried to control the crowd after one of his father's concerts in Texas, and the other was killed at a nightclub in Mexico.

According to TV Y Novelas, Julian Figueroa, son of Joan, wanted to address any rumors that his father was in critical condition before his death.

"My father is not in the middle of a horrible crisis," Figueroa said on the Mexican morning show "Hoy" some months before his father's passing.

"We are going to inform the public so they are aware and so they won't worry about my father. What is happening is that he's under a new treatment that they are testing on my father. They are doing it at the hospital so they can see the results. My father is stable, obviously with the implications of having cancer, but he isn't in greater danger."

The man, who was also called "El Rey Del Jaripeo," is survived by his ex-wife Maribel Guardia and six of his children.