American Head Charge Bassist Chad Hanks Dead at 46 Years Old

Earlier this month, American Head Charge keyboardist Justin Fowler posted a cryptic message about his bandmate, bassist Chad Hanks, in which he revealed that “Chad is planning the final exit from the stage of life. No encores.” Fowler instructed everyone to leave Chad alone, instead routing questions through himself, and that he was “planning a benefit for he and his family to deal with the stupid money crap” together with the folks at Minneapolis, MN venue First Avenue. It was a somewhat strange and mysterious way to announce the pending death of a bandmate, but we’re sure Chad had his reasons for wanting to keep things private and we must respect that.

Hanks finally succumbed to his illness over the weekend. He was only 46 years old.

We still don’t know exactly what claimed Hanks’ life, with his bandmates and friends using vague phrases like “health battle” and “terminal illness.” And you know what? That’s fucking badass. His friends are protecting his wishes to remain private even post-mortem.

A benefit show to help cover funeral costs has been planned in Hanks’ honor on November 26th at First Avenue. You can find more information about that below, or you can donate directly to the fund by sending a PayPal payment to [email protected] (personal payment preferred to avoid fees). Several of Hanks’ bandmates and friends posted tributes online, which you can find below.

R.I.P., Chad. For what it’s worth, American Head Charge’s final album was really, really good.