Goodbye to a guitar legend.
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canadian blind rocker Jeff Healey, who uniquely played his guitar flat on his lap, has died of cancer on the eve of his latest album release, his publicist said in a statement.
Healey, 41, died in a Toronto hospital of a rare cancer, retino blastoma, that he had fought since birth and which claimed his eyesight at the age of one.
"Visually, Jeff was an intriguing player to watch, because he played guitar -- by any conventional standard -- all wrong, with it flat across his lap," his publicist Richard Flohil told broadcaster CTV on Sunday.
"But he was a remarkable, a virtuoso player."
The Jeff Healey Band's 1988 Grammy-nominated album "See the Light," which included the hit "Angel Eyes," sold more than one million copies in the United States.
He played with blues legends B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and recorded with George Harrison, Mark Knopfler, and the late Jimmy Rogers.
Healey also performed as the frontman for a band in a rough and tumble bar in the 1989 movie "Road House," starring Patrick Swayze.
At the time of his death, he was about to release his first rock-blues album in eight years, "Mess of Blues." The CD will be released in March and April in North America and Europe, respectively.
Last year, Healey had surgery to remove the cancer from his legs, and later from both lungs. He also underwent radiation treatment and chemotherapy.
Healey, 41, died in a Toronto hospital of a rare cancer, retino blastoma, that he had fought since birth and which claimed his eyesight at the age of one.
"Visually, Jeff was an intriguing player to watch, because he played guitar -- by any conventional standard -- all wrong, with it flat across his lap," his publicist Richard Flohil told broadcaster CTV on Sunday.
"But he was a remarkable, a virtuoso player."
The Jeff Healey Band's 1988 Grammy-nominated album "See the Light," which included the hit "Angel Eyes," sold more than one million copies in the United States.
He played with blues legends B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and recorded with George Harrison, Mark Knopfler, and the late Jimmy Rogers.
Healey also performed as the frontman for a band in a rough and tumble bar in the 1989 movie "Road House," starring Patrick Swayze.
At the time of his death, he was about to release his first rock-blues album in eight years, "Mess of Blues." The CD will be released in March and April in North America and Europe, respectively.
Last year, Healey had surgery to remove the cancer from his legs, and later from both lungs. He also underwent radiation treatment and chemotherapy.