Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Dead At 49, Death Came After Long Battle With Complications From A Spider Bite

Jeff Hanneman, a guitarist for the innovative thrash metal band Slayer, died on Thursday in a hospital in Southern California. Hanneman appears to have passed due to complications from a spider bite he received three years ago. He was 49.

Slayer confirmed Hanneman's death via their Facebook page.

"Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11am this morning near his Southern California home," they wrote.

"Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure."

Hanneman founded the band Slayer in the early 80s along with fellow guitarist Kerry King. Hanneman wrote many of the band's most memorable songs including "Raining Blood" and "Angel of Death."

Hanneman suffered a spider bite in 2011 that led to necrosis in his arm. The bite put Hanneman in the hospital and after a medically-induced coma and removal of the dead tissue, Hanneman was released. The bite crippled Hanneman so severely that he had to go to physical therapy in order to learn to walk again.

"As you know, Jeff was bitten by a spider more than a year ago, but what you may not have known was that for a couple of days after he went to the ER, things were touch-and-go. There was talk that he might have to have his arm amputated, and we didn't know if he was going to pull through at all," the band said in an open letter about the incident in 2011.

"He was in a medically-induced coma for a few days and had several operations to remove the dead and dying tissue from his arm. So, understand, he was in really, really bad shape. It's been about a year since he got out of the hospital, and since then, he had to learn to walk again, he's had several painful skin grafts, he's been in rehab doing exercises to regain the strength in his arm; but best of all, he's been playing guitar."

Hanneman was still seeing a physiotherapist regularly when he passed.