Founding member of metal band Slayer
LOS ANGELES - Jeff Hanneman, a founding member of Slayer whose career was irrevocably changed after a spider bite, has died. He was 49.
Band spokesman Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald said Hanneman died Thursday morning of liver failure at a Los Angeles hospital with his wife, Kathy, by his side.
The guitarist had recently begun writing songs with the metal band in anticipation of recording a new album later this year. He had been slowly recovering from what was believed to be a spider bite that nearly cost him his arm after he failed to seek immediate treatment.
“The music industry has lost a true trailblazer, and our deepest sympathies go out to his family, his bandmates and fans around the world who mourn his untimely passing,” Neil Portnow, president and chief executive officer of the Recording Academy, said in a statement.
The spider bite may have contributed to the failure of Hanneman’s liver, Robinson-Fitzgerald said, but it is unclear whether an autopsy will be scheduled. No funeral arrangements have been made.
“Jeff Hanneman will always be a metal god,” rocker Andrew W.K. posted on Twitter.
Hanneman co-founded the thrash metal pioneers in Huntington Beach, Calif., in 1981.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 05/04/2013