Confirmation of Bennett's death
Edward Burch, Bennett's friend and fellow musician, gave a statement regarding the incident saying, "Early this morning, Jay died in his sleep and an autopsy is being performed."
Undertow Music Collective that worked with Bennett on his first three albums also gave a message regarding Bennett's death through their website. It stated, “We are profoundly saddened to report that our friend died in his sleep last night. Jay was a beautiful human being who will be missed.”
Bennett's blog on his health
The cause of Bennett's death has not been confirmed by the Urbana police as of Sunday night. However, just last month, Bennett publicized his health problem through his MySpace blog.
It read “… a decade plus of multiple nightly stage jumps and various other rock and roll theatrics had finally taken a toll that I could no longer merely deal with or ignore.”
According to Bennett's blog, he needed to undergo surgery as soon as possible but was unable to do so due to the lack of a health insurance. The surgery is for a hip injury he sustained in the 90's.
Aside from his health condition, the musician made bigger news when he sued former band member Jeff Tweedy in Cook County Circuit Court for breach of contract and royalties, which Tweedy supposedly owed him for his participation in the documentary about their band entitled “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”.
Bennett and his band
Bennett's death will surely be a loss to the music industry. He was a multi-instrumentalist, a singer and songwriter who was best known for the seven years he spent being with the rock band Wilco.
He joined the band as their guitarist in 1994 and left soon after they completed their album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” in 2001. After that, Bennett released five solo albums and also became a record producer for other artists such as Sheryl Crow and Garrisson Starr.
Post new comment