Folkobit: Vic Chesnutt

UPDATE 26th December: Sadly, Kristin Hersh has confirmed that Vic died during Christmas Day. There's a memorial donations page been opened.

UPDATE Christmas Day night: The Examiner.com report which orginally reported Chesnutt's death has been updated during the course of the day; Vic is now said to be in a coma, but still alive. Don Wilkie of Constellation Records has confirmed that he is in "the middle of a serious medical situation".

This was the original post from earlier today when The Examiner and Spinner were reporting his death:

Sorry to report the death of Vic Chesnutt, who has died after what is believed to have been a suicide attempt.

Following a car accident in 1983, when he was 18, Vic Chesnutt had been left a paraplegic. Two years later, he relocated from Zebulon to Athens, Georgia, first joining The La-Di-Das and then moving on to solo work. It was this folk-rock work which caught the eye of the local scene, leading to Michael Stipe producing Chesnutt's debut work. The respect in which Chesnutt was held amongst the alt-rock royalty was demonstrated by the 1996 tribute album Sweet Relief II, which attracted contributions of covers of his work from REM, Madonna, Garbage, The Smashing Pumpkins and others.

Beset by much tragedy in his life - the car accident, death of loved ones, drug problems and massive medical debts - Chesnutt told an NPR interview that he had attempted suicide four times in the past.

A tweet from Kirstin Hersh on Christmas Eve suggested that he had made another attempt; he appears to have overdosed on muscle relaxants, slipping into a coma from which he would not recover.

Vic Chesnutt was 45.