Former Nine Inch Nails keyboardist James Woolley, who toured with the industrial band for four years, died this weekend at age 50. His cause of death is unknown.
His ex-wife announced his death on Facebook, saying:
Woolley joined the Nine Inch Nails in 1991 when he replaced Lee Mars for the Lollapalooza Tour. According to Rolling Stone, he continued to perform with the band through the recordings of 1992's Broken EP and 1994's The Downward Spiral.
While he was not credited for his contributions, he did appear in NIN's music videos for "Wish" and "March of the Pigs."
Rolling Stone reached out to Trent Reznor for comment, where he had this to say:
"Terrible news regarding James. I hadn't crossed paths with him for some time, but always thought of him fondly," Reznor told Rolling Stone. "He was a fun character to be around, a solid musician and a genuinely good guy. Those of us from that era of the band have been sharing 'James' stories … lots of laughs and love and sadness. Wishing his family the very best.
Woolley also appeared in Nine Inch Nails' 1997 concert film Closure, which documented the 1994-95 Downward Spiral Tour. He was replaced by Charlie Clouser midway through the band's Self-Destruct tour in December 1994.
Afterwards, he won a Best Metal Performance Grammy for Nine Inch Nails' "Happiness in Slavery" off the Woodstock '94 comp. After the run with NIN, Woolley joined Rob Halford's 2wo project as well as his own project VOID.
Filter frontman Richard Patrick, who briefly performed alongside Woolley in NIN, shared a photo of the two on Instagram, saying:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL72Tyxe1rc[/youtube]
