Slayer posted an update about the death of guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who was a Hemet resident, on the metal band’s website Thursday, May 9, which promised a celebration of Hanneman and also revealed the cause of his death on May 2.
The band posted that the cause of Hanneman’s death was alcohol-related cirrhosis and that not even Hanneman and those closest to him were aware of the severity until his final days. He was not on a liver transplant list and the band said he had been improving.
Jeff Hanneman (Andrew Stuart Photos/Slayer.net)
The cause of death was not the flesh-eating bacteria Hanneman was believed to have contracted after a spider bite two years ago. The necrotizing fasciitis, had sidelined Hanneman from the stage. He did make a special appearance with Slayer during the encore at the Big 4 concert in Indio in spring 2011.
Also, details are being worked out for a public memorial for Hanneman later this month.
Hanneman’s band members also shared memories of the guitarist, who contributed a lot to the band’s “Reign In Blood” record.
“Jeff was a lifeline of Slayer, he wrote so many of the songs that the band will always be known for. He had a good heart, he was a good guy,” bassist/singer Tom Araya said in the statement.
Here are some more memories that guitarist Kerry King, a Riverside-area resident, and Araya posted in the band’s statement:
KERRY: “I had so many great times with Jeff…in the early days when we were out on the road, he and I were the night owls, we would stay up all night on the bus, just hanging out, talking, watching movies…World War II movies, horror movies, we watched “Full Metal Jacket” so many times, we could practically recite all of the dialogue.”
TOM: “When we first formed Slayer, we used to rehearse all the time, religiously, 24/7. Jeff and I spent a lot of time hanging out together, he lived in my father’s garage which was also our rehearsal space. When he got his own apartment, he had an 8-track and I would go there to record songs I’d written, not Slayer songs, other stuff I’d written. At a certain point, you still have the band but you start your own lives outside of the band, so that 24/7 falls to the side, you don’t spend as much time together as you once did. I miss those early days.”
KERRY: “He was a gigantic World War II buff, his father served in that war, so when Slayer played Russia for the first time – I think it was 1998 – Jeff and I went to one of Moscow’s military museums. I’ll never forget him walking around that place, looking at all of the tanks, weapons and other exhibits. He was like a kid on Christmas morning. But that was Jeff’s thing, he knew so much about WW II history, he could have taught it in school.”
TOM: “We were in New York recording South of Heaven. Jeff and I were at the hotel and we had to get to the studio – I think it was called Chung King, a real rundown place. So we left the hotel and decided to walk, but then it started raining. We walked maybe five blocks, and it was raining so hard, we were totally soaked, so we decided to get a cab. Here we are, two dudes with long hair and leather jackets, absolutely soaked, thumbing to the studio. No one would stop. We had to walk the entire way.”