LeRoi Moore, the sax player in the Dave Matthews Band, died Tuesday afternoon (August 19). He was 46.
Moore suffered serious injuries in an an ATV accident on June 30 outside the band's home base of Charlottesville, Virginia, including a punctured lung and broken ribs. Moore returned to the hospital last month due to complications.
TMZ reported that the band is scheduled to perform on Tuesday night as planned at the Staples Center in Los Angeles as planned. Béla Fleck and the Flecktones saxophonist Jeff Coffin has been filling in for Moore since his accident, according to the band's Web site.
The Dave Matthews Band posted the following statement on its Web site Tuesday night: "We are deeply saddened that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program."
Moore was a jazz musician in Charlottesville when he joined forces with Matthews early in 1991. The band released its first album, Remember Two Things, on its own Bama Rags label late in 1993. That album was recorded live, and DMB has gone on to become one of the most successful live acts in North America.
MTVNews
2008 is shaping up to be a sucky year