14 DAY TRIAL // Rock music has lost a true icon: Slayer guitarist, and one of the band’s founders, Jeff Hanneman, died hours ago of what is believed to be liver failure. He was only 49 years old.
“Reps for the legendary axeman said Hanneman was in a hospital near his SoCal home when his liver failed around 11 a.m.,” TMZ reports.
Other media outlets speculate that the liver failure must have been connected to a recent spider bite Hanneman got that he did not immediately seek treatment for, and which almost cost him an arm.
Admittedly, Jeff’s wife Kathy was by his side at the hospital when he passed.
“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 CEO of the Recording Academy, says in a statement.
Earlier this year, Hanneman had started work on a brand new album.
He will surely be missed.