BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – The entertainer known as the hardest working man in Buffalo show business died Sunday, but his memory will live on through his fans.

Legendary entertainer Lance Diamond died Sunday after a heart issue forced him to cancel a New Year’s Eve performance at Milkie’s lounge on Elmwood Avenue, where he pleased audiences for decades.

Diamond lived to entertain. He had no wife or children, but he reached out to his Buffalo audiences in his own unique way and made them his family.

“Show business was his wife, his children,” his publicist LaVerne Edmond said, noting his desire to please his fans. “So if you were the woman out there getting the rose you were the wife of the day.”

He dazzled his audience with songs and stage moves, even taking off a cuff-link and throwing it to an appreciative fan.  He was always decked-out in his trademark sparkling suits that reflected his shining personality and talent.

Lance’s sister, Paulette Counts, needed to look at those wonderful suits again Monday in the tiny dressing room at Milkie’s.

“He wanted to be unique and he wanted to give the people something to talk about,” she said. “And they sure did talk about it. They never knew what to expect coming out on stage from Lance Diamond.”

He often performed with the Goo Goo Dolls, beginning in the 1980’s. He had once lived in the same house on Norwood Avenue as Robby Takac, who would hear Lance singing in a hallway. Takac became one of his greatest fans.

“He lived in the attic. I lived on the second floor,” said Takac. “There was a hallway that just sounded awesome when you sang in it. So he used to stand in the hallway and sang all the time. Eventually I came in and started playing some guitar with him and we hit it off.”

We (the Goo Goo Dolls) fell in love with his passion, and he fell in love with our carefree spirit.

In a video produced by Buffa/land Productions, Lance is seen on camera saying, “I think everybody in this city knows what I’m about. That I’m wild and crazy. I live to love and I love to live in Buffalo, and Buffalo has been great to me.”

Robby Takac said Lance Diamond was forever pleasing his audiences because they gave him the chance to to do what he loved.

“We’ve lost Buffalo’s greatest cheerleader,” Takac said.