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May 25th, 2009
Ex-Wilco member Jay Bennett passed away Sunday morning. The multi-instrumentalist who was recently embroiled in a lawsuit with his former band’s frontman Jeff Tweedy, reportedly died in his sleep in Urbana, Illinois, where he was operating a recording studio. He was 45.
Bennett originally joined Wilco back in 1994 shortly after the release of their debut album, A.M. He was a key figure in the band’s three subsequent albums, Being There, Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, as well as the two Mermaid Avenue albums with Billy Bragg.
He left the band after butting heads creatively with Tweedy during the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions, which was documented in the 2002 film, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.
Bennett rose up in the Chicago music scene in the early 1990s with his alt-rock band Titanic Love Affair, with which he recorded three albums between 1991 and 1996. After leaving Wilco, he began a solo career and at the time of his death he was finishing his fifth album.
Last month Bennett spoke out on his MySpace blog about his nagging hip injury that he suffered after stage diving during a Titanic Love Affair years ago, but saying he was “in a really good place right now.”
“This whole experience [with the hip pain] has really taught me to look both inward and outward for support, and I’ve learned things about myself that I thought I had completely figured out years ago,” he wrote. “Family and friends have helped me to keep faith in a future that will actually be much more carefree than my constricted present state. I encourage you all to tell me stories of recovery, as they really do help… All in all, I’m ‘in a really good place’ right now; I’m just waiting until I can make it all happen.”
Wilco are currently on tour in Europe and have yet to comment.
[Photo from Bennett's MySpace]
Tags: jay bennett, News, wilco
Posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 2:55 pm by Cam and is filed under News.
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