Madonna Remembers Late Brother Anthony Ciccone, Thanks Him for Planting ‘Many Important Seeds’ for Her

Madonna took to her Instagram Stories on Monday (Feb. 27) to remember her older brother Anthony Ciccone, who died over the weekend at age 66.

“Thank you for blowing my mind as a young girl and introducing me to Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Buddhism, Taoism, Charles Bukowski, Richard Brautigan, Jack Kerouac, Expansive Thinking, Outside the Box,” the Queen of Pop wrote alongside a photo of herself sitting at a table with her brother and their group of friends. “You planted many important seeds.”

See the photo here on Madonna’s Instagram Story before it disappears.

Madonna’s brother-in-law Joe Henry, a musician who is married to the icon’s sister Melanie Ciccone, announced the news of Anthony’s passing via Instagram on Saturday (Feb. 25). “My brother-in-law, Anthony Gerard Ciccone, exited this earthly plane last evening,” Henry wrote alongside a photo of his brother-in-law. “I’ve known him since I was 15, in the spring of our lives in Michigan so many years now gone. As brother Dave Henry (who took this photograph) notes here, Anthony was a complex character; and god knows: we tangled in moments, as true brothers can.”

Henry continued, “But I loved him, and understood him better than I was sometimes willing to let on. But trouble fades; and family remains — with hands reached across the table. Farewell, then, brother Anthony. I want to think the god your blessed mother (and mine) believed in has her there, waiting to receive you. At least for today, no one shall dissuade me from this vision.”

Further details about Ciccone’s passing were not provided.