Reports claim that famous disc jockey Casey Kasem is dead. The "American Top 40" host and creator was 82.

Kasem built a long career from hosting his radio show. Ironically, he denies loving rock 'n' roll even though his career involved it.

He died on Sunday in a hospital in Gig Harbor.

Casey Kasem's death was announced by Danny Deraney, a spokesman for Mr. Kasem's daughter Kerri. Kasem had long been suffering from Lewy body dementia, a progressive disease of the body's neurological and muscle cells.

According to the New York Times, Casey Kasem had to face a family legal battle in his final months over the terms of his death. It was hard for him as he was at the center of a battle between his wife, the actress Jean Kasem, and his three adult children from a previous marriage.

Kasem's popular radio show "American Top 40," first became popular in the 1970s.

Rock 'n' roll was never Kasem's passion, he told interviewers. He knew his subject, and kept up with it in a professional way, but when home, he told Billboard, "I find myself just wanting to sit in my office and make it as quiet as possible."

"If I were doing a real rock show," he told The New York Times in 1990, "then it would matter to know how I felt about what I was playing." But, he added, "I'm just counting them down as they appear on the chart, 1 through 40. What really matters is what I say between the songs."

Now that Casey Kasem is dead, he has forever left a legacy in music through his pioneering radio show. Fans who grew up with the show are deeply saddened with his passing.

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