Nevermore frontman Warrel Dane passed away at the age of 56 on December 13, 2017. Dane was recording his first solo album in 10 years at the time in São Paulo, Brazil when he reportedly had a heart attack in the night and could not be revived. After his passing, his ex-bandmate Jeff Loomis releases a statement grieving Dane's death and confirmed that without Warrel, there would not be a Nevermore reunion of any kind.
Now Loomis has gone far more in-depth about Dane's death to All That Shreds, discussing the end of Nevermore and his grieving process when he found out that Dane had died. He says they never really hated each other despite their differences in life, and even at one point discussed "doing a reunion and writing some more songs."
You can read Loomis' full statement below, but man it's a pretty tough one to get through.
"I hadn't seen Warrel too terribly much, maybe just a few select times since the band broke up. He passed away when I was at home during Christmas break from touring with Arch Enemy. It was a terrible experience for me to go through as with anyone who loses a close friend. I'm still grieving over it and I probably always will be for a long time. Primarily when you've known somebody for so long and toured the world and wrote music together, you become very close like brothers, and that's what we were.
"To make a long story short, Warrel was a troubled guy, he had issues with alcohol and at one point so did I. I would never single him out and say he was the sole issue of why we broke up as a band. I was a terrible drinker at one time in my life. I've been sober for five years now. I've gotten my life together and I've got a very clear and focused mind, and health-wise, I'm doing very well. When Warrel continued to drink, it just kept me from really talking to him a lot. I just wanted to keep my distance from that kind of thing because I was trying to live a cleaner lifestyle. The times that I did speak with him or texted him, it was always very friendly, and we told each other how we missed one another. There were some talks about doing a reunion and writing some more songs. So that was something I was kind of excited about, and, unfortunately, you know, that will never happen now."
"I have fantastic memories and killer music that we wrote together, and that will always be a great reminder of what we shared. I'm going to miss him very much. He was a great friend of mine, and I can't say enough good things about him. He was an incredible lyricist and an incredible vocalist as well. He was a very different person, a tough one to figure out. He was intense with his lyrics and a brilliant guy."
