Monday, October 10th 2011
News: Weezer
Ex-Weezer Bassist Mikey Welsh Dead at 40
Mikey Welsh, best known as Matt Sharp’s replacement as bassist in Weezer, has passed away. Holding down the bass duties in the mega-successful group from 2000-2001, Welsh was found unresponsive in his Chicago hotel room on Saturday October 8th. According to the Chicago Tribune, authorities believe that the 40 year old artist’s cause of death was an overdose as both prescription pills and a ziplock-type bag filled with a white powder believed to be heroin were found in the room.
Welsh cut his chops as Juliana Hatfield’s touring bassist in the late 1990’s before joining Weezer. While the public was in the dark for many years as to why Welsh up and left Weezer in 2001, it was later revealed the bassist had a nervous breakdown due to drug use and undiagnosed mental health issues.
Welsh shared with Rock Salt Plum Review in 2007 that “Basically, a lifetime of doing drugs and being undiagnosed as having bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and borderline personality disorder finally caught up with me when I was 30 years old…I was having a complete nervous breakdown. It ended with a severe suicide attempt (an overdose). I was found and rushed to the hospital where I had come to within minutes of my heart completely stopping. I was in a coma for a few days, and woke up in a lockdown psychiatric ward.”
Having moved on from the music industry, Mikey spent the final years of his life painting. In addition to having his art work featured on a line of Burton Snowboards known as “The Farm” Welsh had 13 exhibitions of his art work and was a member of Outside Art.
On an eerie note, Welsh dreamed of dying in Chicago. He posted to his Twitter account on September 27th “dreamt i died in chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). need to write my will today.” The Vermont native and father of two was in Chicago to watch his former band mates headline the Riot Fest. As of press time, a public memorial for Welsh is being organized for Saturday October 15th, 2011 in Burlington Vermont.
He was in the band from 1998 to 2001 actually. Also what a bummer, he was such a fuckin great guy and always my favorite member.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to recall Weezer did the whole “Break Up/Go On Hiatus” from 1997-2000?
Nah, rehearsals for the Green album started in 98, and the band did release a cover of Velouria during that time.
Wow, uhm, had to do some unnecessary looking on my own. He later added this in his next tweet: “@JVittitow correction – the weekend after next.”
Damn.