HEALEY DEAD AT 41

HEALEY DEAD AT 41

Canadian rocker JEFF HEALEY has lost his battle with cancer. He was 41. The blind star, who mastered playing the guitar despite his disability, died at Toronto's St. Joseph's Hospital on Sunday (02Mar08) - just one day before his new album Mess of Blues, his first in eight years, was to be released in North America. An official statement posted on his website reads: "Following a lengthy struggle with cancer, Healey passes away on the eve of the release of a new blues rock album." Healey had been suffering from retino blastoma, a rare form of cancer, since birth and the disease claimed his eyesight when he was just one-year-old. But Healey didn't allow his loss of sight to hinder his musical ambitions - going on to form the Jeff Healey Band with bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen. Their work spawned the 1988 Grammy-nominated album Angle Eyes Paying tribute to the late star, Healey's publicist Richard Flohil says, "Visually, Jeff was an intriguing player to watch, because he played guitar - by any conventional standard - all wrong, with it flat across his lap. But he was a remarkable, virtuoso player." He is survived by his wife Christie and their two children: Rachel, 13, and Derek, three.