Elliott Smith has died at age 34, according to an obituary posted late Tuesday on Sweet Adeline, Smith's official website. Rumors had been circulating on the Internet all day about Smith's apparent suicide; by early evening, the overwhelming traffic from well-wishers and fans was crashing Sweet Adeline's discussion board. A handful of posts indicated that representatives from Smith's label, Dreamworks, were attempting to contact Charlie Ramirez, the webmaster for Sweet Adeline.
Within hours, Ramirez posted the following: "As you probably realize, I'm pretty devastated about having to say goodbye to Elliott... it's never easy to put into words what someone means to you... Elliott was such a lovely man... I will always have his love, kindness, intelligence, humbleness, creativeness, greatness and so much more in me forever because that's what he was and i'll always love him for being who he was... I'll miss you so much. We will all miss you. See you in heaven, Elliott."
I know next to nothing about Smith or his music, but if this is true (as it appears to be) then it's very sad stuff indeed.
Article comments
1 - Craig Lyndall
I was a real late-comer to Smith's music, but his songs in Good Will Hunting were just incredible. I also got really into his next album XO which has a couple Waltz's on it which are just amazing. It's just so sad to hear he's dead at 34 regardless of what the cause ends up being.
2 - Eric Olsen
Thanks James and very glad to see you back, though this is terrible news. I have always preferred his punky heatmiser stuff to the much more delicate solo work, but he is a much beloved figure. He always struck me as pretty deeply troubled and unstable, which now appears to be very unfortunately manifest.
3 - Natalie Davis
Oh, what awful news. I loved his music and worried about him -- in the same fashion I once did about Kurt Cobain. Damn. RIP Elliott. Geez.
4 - mood swingz
What a terrible loss to the music world. I too got into Elliott's music just a few years ago and went to see him in Chicago on my birthday in 2001. I remember he did an amazing version of "Don't fear the reaper" that just blew us all away. I was listening to the song "Christian Brothers" today and the line where he says "nightmares become me it's so f***ing clear" sent chills up my spine. I wish he could have gotten some kind of help before he checked out. He wrote some beautiful ballads.
RIP. We miss you Elliott.