Indie This article is more than 13 years old

Jay Reatard died from cocaine and alcohol overdose

This article is more than 13 years oldGarage-rock musician's autopsy reveals he died from 'cocaine toxicity, with alcohol as a contributing factor'

Autopsy results for garage-pop musician Jay Reatard show that cocaine and alcohol led to his death, coroners said yesterday. The 29-year-old Memphis musician was found dead at his home on 13 January.

Reatard, whose real name was Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr, died from "cocaine toxicity, [with] alcohol [as] a contributing factor", according to Dr Karen E Chancellor, medical examiner for Tennessee's Shelby county. Prior to the autopsy, friends said Reatard had been suffering from "flu-like symptoms" in the week leading up to his death. There were also rumours of a murder inquiry, spurred by Memphis police's routine homicide inquiries.

With just two solo LPs to his name, Reatard was a key figure in the American noise-pop underground. He released dozens of singles over the last decade, breaking into the indie mainstream with last year's album, Watch Me Fall.

Though notorious for his crazed gigs and wild behaviour, Reatard dismissed his reputation as a substance user. "You can go online and there's people on message boards trying to dismiss my music by saying, 'This guy is a huge fucking cokehead, man!'" he told the Onion AV Club in January 2009. "I don't even drink alcohol. I haven't for quite a while. I haven't touched drugs or drank alcohol in months."

To the frustration of many fans, Reatard was not included in the In Memoriam segment at this Sunday's Grammy awards. Representatives for the broadcast have not commented on the omission.

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