Celebrating The Life Of Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman

Next week’s memorial celebration is being held at the Hollywood Palladium from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. According to our records, the venue’s capacity is 3,800. Paid parking will be available around the Palladium.

The guitarist and Slayer co-founder died May 2 at the age of 49. The metal band revealed May 9 that Hanneman’s cause of death was alcohol related cirrhosis. A representative for the band initially said a 2011 spider bite, and the subsequent case of necrotizing fasciitis, might have contributed to the musician’s death. The flesh-eating disease forced Hanneman to have several operations and he nearly lost his arm.

In addition to posting the details about the memorial, Slayer also included the following obituary on the band’s website:

“Jeff Hanneman helped shape Slayer’s uncompromising thrash-metal sound as well as an entire genre of music. His riffs of fury and punk-rock attitude were heard in the songs he wrote, including Slayer classics “Angel of Death,” “Raining Blood,” “South of Heaven” and “War Ensemble.” Hanneman co-founded Slayer with fellow-guitarist Kerry King, bassist Tom Araya and drummer Dave Lombardo in Huntington Park, CA in 1981.

“For more than 30 years, Hanneman was the band member who stayed out of the spotlight, rarely did interviews, amassed an impressive collection of World War II memorabilia, was with his wife Kathy for nearly three decades, shut off his phone and went incommunicado when he was home from tour, did not want to be on the road too late into any December as Christmas was his favorite holiday, and, from the time he was about 12 years old, woke up every, single day with one thing on his mind: playing the guitar.

“It was once suggested to Slayer that if they would write ‘just one mainstream song that could get on the radio,’ they would likely sell millions of records and change the commercial course of their career, similar to what had happened to Metallica with 1993’s “Enter Sandman.” Jeff was the first to draw a line of integrity in the sand, replying, ‘We’re going to make a Slayer record. If you can get it on the radio, fine, if not, then f**k it.”