So, talk about sad news on Christmas Day. Vic Chesnutt, a singer and songwriter who was known for his incredibly sad and very poignant numbers, passed away on Christmas Day at age 45. The worst bit of the news? It seems that he tried to commit suicide. Sadly, the label that represented Chesnutt, Constellation Records, expressed how sad they were to see this happen, and expressed how they felt he had a very strong character and grace.

In fact, this particular artist has left behind friends and fellow collaborators who are just as stunend as anyone else. When it became known that Chesnutt wasn’t doing well on Wednesday, Kristin Hersh, one of his fellow collabs and a good friend, the former singer of the Throwing Muses, had been telling everyone through Twitter about it. In fact, it was Hersh’s Tweets that alerted most everyone that it was a suicide attempt.

For Hersh and many others, they had hoped it would not be an actual successful attempt, but rather that he would pull through with minor, if any, brain damage. He had left a note to inform Hersh, but it seemed that even Chesnutt was sure this would not be an attempt.

Vic Chesnutt was discovered by Michael Stipe, lead singer for R.E.M. back in the 1980s, and had been in a wheelchair since he was 18 from a car accident. He had produced fifteen albums total, and two of them had been this year, but it seemed that for whatever reason, Chesnutt is gone. No details have been released on what his note said, or what his reasons were, and it’s possible no one may ever know.  For any of Chesnutt’s friends and family, though, there will be no solace for now, and the music industry has lost an amazing songwriter and performer.