This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Top Stories
Former Wilco man died of overdose
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 24 June 2009
Former Wilco guitarist Jay Bennett died of an accidental overdose of a pain killer, a coroner said yesterday.
As previously reported, Bennett died suddenly last month aged 45. It was known that the musician had been raising funds for hip replacement surgery, and there was some speculation he had been secretly suffering from general ill-health which may have caused his death.
However, that was not the case, rather the guitarist overdosed, accidentally it seems, on painkillers which he would have been taking to reduce pain stemming from his hip condition. He had previously written about being in pain on his blog, writing back in April: “As time has passed my mobility has continued to erode, to the extent that, for quite some time now, it has even been difficult to sit at the computer for more than just a few minutes”.
As previously reported, Bennett’s death came soon after he launched litigation against his former Wilco bandmate Jeff Tweedy claiming he was owed various royalties from his time in the band, and from his involvement in a documentary film which documented the breakdown in Bennett and Tweedy’s creative partnership.
Bennet’s family have not, as yet, responded to the coroner’s report.
