TYPE O NEGATIVE keyboardist
Josh Silver has confirmed to
BLABBERMOUTH.NET
that the band's frontman,
Peter Steele, passed away yesterday
(Wednesday, April 14) at the age of 48. No official cause of death has
yet been released, but it is believed that
Steele died of heart
failure.
Mistress Juliya (a.k.a.
Juliya Chernetsky)
of
Fuse TV broke the news on
her Twitter
page last night, stating that she spoke to
TYPE O NEGATIVE
guitarist
Kenny Hickey just before midnight New York time, and
that
Kenny confirmed that the rumors were true.
Back in
2005, many people were shocked when they logged on to the
TYPE O
NEGATIVE web site and saw a gravestone with the words "[P]eter
Steele - 1962 - 2005 .... Free At Last" carved on it. According to
Epinions.com,
there were rumors at the time that
Steele was sick (with
anything from cancer to AIDS), was on his deathbed, attempted suicide
... and the list goes on. Needless to say, it turned out that
Steele
was very much alive and the gravestone was merely a joke, albeit one
the wasn't viewed as being in particularly good taste.
Steele
was born
Petrus T. Ratajczyk on January 4, 1962 in Brooklyn, New
York. He stood 6' 7" (201 cm) tall, and had a low, bass-heavy voice,
which was one of the most recognizable features in
TYPE O NEGATIVE's
music.
Before forming
TYPE O NEGATIVE,
Steele
played for the metal group
FALLOUT and the thrash band
CARNIVORE.
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=138519