Madonna Pays Tribute To Late Brother Anthony Ciccone: 'Thank You For Blowing My Mind'

Madonna is thankful for the things her big brother, Anthony Ciccone, taught her before his death.

Anthony passed away Friday after years of struggling with alcoholism. He was 66.

The "Like A Virgin" hitmaker took to her Instagram Story Monday to share a black-and-white throwback photo from the '80s with all of their siblings. In the caption, she paid tribute to her late older brother and looked back on how Anthony changed her life.

"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, [and] Expansive Thinking," wrote Madonna, adding: "You planted many important seeds."

Madonna's brother-in-law Joe Henry, who is married to her sister Melanie Ciccone, announced Anthony's death via Instagram Saturday.

"My brother-in-law, Anthony Gerard Ciccone, exited this earthly plane last evening," Henry wrote. "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. 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."

He added, "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."

An unnamed source told People that although Madonna and Anthony had been "estranged," she "supported him in every way she could when he was willing to take the support."

Madonna and other family members reportedly visited Anthony while he was in a rehab facility and his condition declined in the past few months.

In 2011, Anthony said he was "homeless on the street" and lived under a bridge in their native Michigan. Six years later, their brother Christopher Ciccone told The Mirror that Anthony was back home and "recovering" after spending time in a treatment facility.

In an interview with Daily Mail in 2011, Anthony said he lost his home and his job at their father's wine-making business. The outlet noted that Madonna had repeatedly offered to pay for his rehab and that their father offered to give him back his job if he would get professional help.

"I'm a zero in their eyes; a non-person, an embarrassment," Anthony told the outlet at the time. "If I froze to death, my family probably wouldn't know or care about it for six months."

Anthony claimed that he didn't need rehab, adding it was "boring." He insisted that what he needed was a job and to meet his son, whom he hadn't seen for a decade.

"My family seems to think rehab is some kind of magic panacea for life's ills," he added.