Slayer: The Tragic Death of Jeff Hanneman

#slayer #jeffhanneman #kerryking

Today we take a look at the tragic death of Slayer's guitarist Jeff Hanneman who passed away in 2013.

For years since 2003, every year since 2003 past and present fans congregate in the spring to celebrate all that is great in hard rock and heavy metal at the Golden God awards.

2013 was a bit different though at a much more sombering year. May of 2013 news started making the rounds that Slayer co-founder and guitarist Jeff Hanneman had passed away. The originally scheduled program for the event would be changed to honour Hanneman. Slayer guitarist Kerry King would kick off the evening's events alongside his friend Black Label Society guitarist Zakk Wylde. Here's a snippet of him honouring his friend and made.

“We're at the Golden Gods Man. Jeff fuckin Hanneman, he played in Slayer.
He would not want a moment of silence. Jeff wants a moment of fuckin noise.

You got a dream crazy enough, you got fist-raising up and tip one back to our fallen brother.”
[Applause] Slayer, Slayer, Slayer. Alright the show must go on let’s rock!

During this three decade-plus run in Slayer, Hanneman wrote many of the band's most popular songs including Angel of Death, Raining Blood or War Ensemble and countless others, his guitar playing style would influence generations of guitarists and bands that follow in Slayers footsteps.

The Hanneman cause of death was ruled to be alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver at the young age of 49. Tragedy had almost taken him and away from the world two years prior in 2011, he contracted a flesh-eating bacteria, necrotizing fasciitis, and it's not a common condition but it would happen following a spider bite he received while sitting in a hot tub in a friend's house and following the bite he wouldn't visit a hospital for almost a week, when he started to feel sick.

His wife Catherine Hannemann recalled this time in her husband's life, about a month after he passed away during an interview with Guitar World saying the following, “Jeff had been visiting a friend in the LA area, he was in a Jacuzzi one night relaxing and he had his arm over the side and he felt something like a bite or a prick, but of course he didn't think anything of it, he came home about a week later and he was pretty well lit. He came through the front door he wasn't feeling well and he just wanted to go upstairs and go to sleep.” Before he did though he said Cathy, I need to show you something even though I really don't want to. He took off the shirt and I just freaked out when I saw his arm it was bright red and three times the normal size.

“I said Jeff, we need to go now, we need to get you to an ER, but all he wants to go to bed and sleep. And I knew I was trying to rationalize with a very intoxicated person. So there's nothing I could do that night. The next morning I convinced him to let me take him in. He didn't have a lot of strength but I was able to get him into the car. When we got to the hospital in Loma Linda, they took one look at him and they knew immediately what it was, so they took him right in. Jeff told me to go home because we both knew he'd be there for hours, neither of us thought it would be a life or death situation. After about three or four hours later, Jeff called me and said Cath, it's not good, they may have to amputate. I think you need to come back here. When I got there, Jeff was on the stretcher waiting to go into surgery.”

The doctor put it in perspective for me, said “I need you to see your husband. You may not make it. The doctor looked at Jeff and told him, “First I'm gonna try to save your life then I'm going to try to save your arm, and then I'm going to try to save your career, and looking at Jeff on that stretcher and possibly saying goodbye, knowing I may never see him again was one of the hardest moments of my life.”

“I couldn't get Jeff to go to rehab or therapy. I think he was letting the visual of his arm get to his emotions. It was messing with his mind. It was hard to keep them up beat at that point. I think he thought he could do it on his own and he would just go to rehearsal and play and that would be his rehab. I think he started to learn once he tried rehearsing that he wasn't playing up to his ability and that he wasn't able to play guitar at the speed he was used to. I think that really hit him hard and he started to lose hope.”
Hanneman would be lucky that doctors opted not to amputate his arm instead of giving him heavy doses of antibiotics. By early 2011 reports started to surface that nothing creatively was going on and Slayers camp until Hanneman’s condition improved. By April 2011 Slayer would play with the Big Four at Coachella. And exodus guitarist Gary Holt will replace Hanneman.

However, Hanneman would make an appearance to join the band for several songs in

Видео Slayer: The Tragic Death of Jeff Hanneman канала Rock N' Roll True Stories