Musician Robert Wayne Birch, who had recorded and toured with Elton John extensively since the early 1990s, has been found dead in Los Angeles.

The bass player and saxophonist died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head.

The case is "being investigated as a possible suicide.

Guitarist Birch, joined Elton John's touring band in 1992 and worked on four of his albums, as well as the 1997 re-working of Candle in the Wind.