Jay Bennett, ex-Wilco, R.I.P.1963-2009

Gifted musician passes away Saturday night in his sleep.

By Fred Mills

"We are profoundly saddened to report that our friend died in his sleep last night. Jay was a beautiful human being who will be missed." Thus read a posting at the Undertow Records website yesterday, echoing the sentiments of music fans all across America. The Jay in question is Jay Walter Bennett; Undertow released the former Titanic Love Affair/Wilco member's critically acclaimed 2002 solo album Palace At 4am.

As word got out about the death of Bennett, 45, not too many details were known other than that Bennett died in his sleep Saturday night and that no official cause of death was known yet. An autopsy is pending. However, Bennett had been afflicted with chronic hip pain for some time, the result of sustaining an injury during a stage dive while performing with Titanic Love Affair, and he'd been planning on having hip replacement surgery.

In a report filed at the Chicago Sun-Times, pop critic Jim DeRogatis quoted Bennett's friend and oftentime collaborator Edward Burch as saying, "The family is in mourning and is unavailable for comment at this time... He was an extremely talented musician and a great person, and I'll miss him terribly." Burch added that he'd gotten word to Wilco through bandmember John Stirratt and the band, on tour in Spain, was "broken up" about the news.

An official statement from Wilco is forthcoming, although both Bennett and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy were in the news recently after Bennett filed a lawsuit against Tweedy alleging he was owed compensation from his 1994-2001 tenure in Wilco. A falling out between the two men led to Bennett's acrimonious departure from the band, and speculation among certain cynical pundits and bloggers was that Bennett, lacking health insurance, had filed the suit in order to raise funds to pay for his much-needed surgery.

Bob Boilen of NPR music penned a heartfelt goodbye to Bennett at the NPR site yesterday. In it, he included a post that Bennett had made to his MySpace blog in April outlining to fans what he'd been going through recently with his hip troubles and discussing his forthcoming album Kicking at the Perfumed Air.

"I will continue to stay as active as I possibly can, making music, and staying in touch with all of you (my friends), as the surgery approaches, and later, whilst I am recovering," worote Bennett. "Apologies for my absence, I honestly do care about staying true to my promise to maintain open and interactive relationships with all of you "out there," wherever you may be."

BLURT extends our deepest condolences to Bennett's family, friends and fans. He will be missed.