Vic Chesnutt Death Reports Unconfirmed

As I mentioned last night, there were a few reports that said singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt died after slipping into a coma. All of those reports seemed to point to one source: Henry Owings.

However, as of about an hour ago, new information has surfaced that Chesnutt has not died and is indeed still in a coma. As one Examiner piece notes, there has been no official word released, and many a death article (such as one in Spinner) have been re-written to fix the errors. The Wall Street Journal published an article about a half hour ago that says Chesnutt is alive. It quotes a couple of people close to Chesnutt, including the head of Constellation Records:

“There is no truth to the rumour that Vic has died,” said Don Wilkie, co-founder of Constellation, addressing rumors on the Web. “He remains alive.”

The Examiner piece also pointed to a comment on another Examiner site believed to be made by Jem Cohen. Here’s what Cohen wrote:

Vic Chesnutt is not dead. I am with him at the hospital in Georgia, and while he is in serious coma, we do not know what the outcome will be. Vic has survived serious comas in the past. Please do not report misinformation. You owe that to his family and friends, as well as to journalistic ethics.
Thank you.
Jem Cohen

Although, as information concerning Chesnutt’s life has proven, it’s hard to rely on any information on the Internet these days (and would be hard to confirm it as having been written by Cohen), he’s made a valid point. I did my best yesterday to say that there had only been reports that Chesnutt had died, and made sure to note that all the information seemed to confirm a single source which one site said wasn’t the most trustworthy person on the subject. I hope I did not lead any others into believing the false information as well.

UPDATE: Chesnutt died Friday afternoon. More information is available here.