CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—October 9, 2011. Former Weezer bass player Mikey Welsh was found dead today in a Chicago hotel room. Welsh found success as an artist when he left the band.
Laura Kubiak, a spokesperson for the Chicago police department said Welsh was supposed to check out of the Raffaello Hotel at 1 p.m. Saturday. When he didn’t check out, hotel staff entered his room, and found him unconscious and not breathing, according to Kubiak.
An autopsy will be performed by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office but Kubiak said that there is no indication of foul play.
Weezer , scheduled to perform today at Chicago’s ‘Riot Fest,’ released the following statement:
Dear friends and fans,
It saddens me and the guys in Weezer so much to say that our beautiful, creative, hilarious and sweet friend Mikey Welsh has passed away at the very young age of 40. A unique talent, a deeply loving friend and father, and a great artist is gone, but we will never forget him. His chapter in the weezer story (’98 – ’01) was vital, essential, wild, and amazing.
Mikey was never one to shy away from the absurd, dangerous or strange, and he did so with a gusto few others had. No one had quite the stage presence of Mikey, nor have there been many who pulled the types of shenanigans he did at shows. If it rocked, he had to try it – and he always found a way to pull it off.
When he emerged from his nervous breakdown that spelled his exit from the rock n roll world, he took on a new role as an astonishing and pure visual artist. It was a glorious flowering of a talent he always possessed, but he had chosen to rock out first, paint later. Our more recent meet-ups at weezer shows, including recently at the Weezer/Flaming Lips show at Jones Beach were always a great time. We will miss him terribly. Our deepest heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends. The world has lost a truly one of a kind guy.
…Tomorrow we play the RIOTfest in Chicago as planned – Mikey was planning on attending this show and we were looking forward to seeing him again. As sad as it is to think about, we know Mikey would never want the rock stopped on his account – quite the contrary in fact. While we wont see him, we know he will be there rocking out with us!
Photo above taken in Nashville October 3rd by Mikey’s friend Jordan Vittitow.
