Jay Walter Bennett RIP(ex-Wilco member)

Kenan, by posting "I will not deign to speculate" you ARE speculating. The guy underwent major surgery which is ALWAYS a risk no matter how old or healthy you are.

Very sad news.

jesus that sucks

that's really terrible, RIP.

damn, that's really sad. just 45, and from the blurb i gather he just got some shit together/sorted out to keep going with life.

RIP; this guy brought a lot of light to my life, and many others, at innumerable shows over the years. Bizarre and dreadful news.

RIP. So sad. I remember seeing him and Jeff Tweedy play an acoustic show together around Mermaid Avenue. He could really, really play.

ah damn :(

RIP

Playing Summerteeth now- RIP dude

RIP. For Summerteeth and Being There, he deserves props. I don't know to what extent it's a coincidence that I lost interest in Wilco after his exit, but anyway.

Damn. I talked to him one night when he popped in to guest with The Reputation and he was extremely likable and funny. RIP

Hmm, that post also makes me wonder if he thought suing Tweedy wasn't something he really wanted to do, but was getting hard up to pay for the surgery.

Sorry, I'll save the speculation for later, just a thought. Still kinda stunned by this tbh.

very sad about this, re-read this interview i did with him in 2001 or 2002. this was one of the first interviews i ever did (if not the first) and i was pretty starstruck -- at the time I was heavily into Summerteeth and YHF. I really overstate the awesomeness of Palace at 4am, but maybe I'll pull it out and have a listen again. http://www.junkmedia.org/index.php?i=195

I might be wrong, but the Wilco arguments seemed to have as much to do with who was on what drugs when as it did with the music.

Jeff Tweedy is gracious and honorable in his first comments about Jay Bennett's passing:

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Bennett's former band, was on tour in Europe when the news arrived. "We are all deeply saddened by this tragedy," he said. "We will miss Jay as we remember him -- as a truly unique and gifted human being and one who made welcome and significant contributions to the band's songs and evolution. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends in this very difficult time."

As you'd expect, but it's still nice to hear.

really really sad news

"I do not entirely understand what he died from. He had his hip replaced... and then what? Infection? Rejection? At his age, he should not have died from that kind of surgery unless... well... unless his immune system was already very weak"

possibly a fat embolism? often when fractures or orthopedic surgeries occur, this situation can develop. bone marrow may leak into the circulatory system and enter the lungs or brain and cause arrest. i'm not a medical doctor, but this is how i understand it and perhaps this is what happened.

regardless, great loss to music

From this message, he hadn't had the surgery yet.

wow. even more tragic then.

Ha ha, how is that more tragic?

a very fair question!

i understood that he died from complications to a surgery - which is always horrible but always a possibility. that he died before it even happened - an apparently "accidental" death? yeah, more tragic imo.
it's absurd to even discuss cause he's gone and that fucking sucks

This is terribly sad. There was a terrific interview with him in Amplifier in the late 90's/2000 about Summerteeth in which he confessed his love for early Bee Gees (not an easy admission to make back then) and discussed his use of the Chamberlain, a precursor to the Mellotron.

I really thought a lot of his playing on that record and concur with others who noted that his departure from Wilco was a real loss -- they never have equaled that partnership again, IMO.

yeah its gonna turn a game from a 13 pt lead

oops wrong thread sorry!

For a second I'm all "Well that's one way to look at it..."

Dude seems to have gotten the short end of the Tweedy stick w/ the Wilco thing. I dunno what exactly he contributed, but BT, ST & YHT are easily my fave Wilco records, so it was probably something pretty vital. RIP big guy.

Sad news.

I suppose Tweedy won't have to worry much about that pending Bennett lawsuit, then.

when i have the time, i'm going to post a Bennett-era Wilco bootleg from 2000 on my blog. That was the first time I saw Wilco and he definitely owned the band at that point, playing lead guitar, all kinds of keyboards, tons of backing vocals. I can kind of see why Tweedy -- as good as the music was -- felt like he had been usurped as the leader of the group.

Yikes: Did a lack of health-insurance contribute to Jay Bennett's passing? If so, it makes a tragic story even more horribly sad.

And lack of health insurance could easily have been the reason for that lawsuit last week.

RIP

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/bennettwiki.jpg

omgawd

i was trying to find info on his autopsy and came across that from some dallas rag

just read something about more tests being done to determine cause of death

that's really funny... but honestly, it was my first thought when I heard.

That's fucked up that Jeff Tweedy would do something like that.

What a disaster for Wilco.

Coroner says overdose.

still sad about this. live show i mentioned upthread is over here: http://ow.ly/fFF6 it's awesome

kind of figured that was the case, thanks for posting.

Why is this a disaster for Wilco?

Also, coroner doesn't say "overdose" -- he says "accidental overdose." Big difference.

Why is this a disaster for Wilco?

read the wikipedia snapshot

Also, coroner doesn't say "overdose" -- he says "accidental overdose." Big difference.

definitely. fentanyl is a very, very strong opiod, and there have been recalls and lawsuits associated with some types of those transdermal patches.

read the wikipedia snapshot

Again, why is an obviously made up wiki item a "disaster for Wilco."

"what a disaster for ( )" is a lil ilx in-joke i believe