Michael Ward, who played guitar for The Wallflowers and was a co-founder of School Of Fish, is dead at the age of 57. No cause of death has been given as of yet. The guitarist was scheduled to perform a show today at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country in Las Vegas, Nevada with a number of former members of Goo Goo Dolls, OneRepublic, Panic! At The Disco, and others.
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The Wallflowers have since posted their condolences online, and Ward’s passing was confirmed on Wednesday.
“His contributions to music began before his time with the Wallflowers and continued long after his time with the band,” The Wallflowers wrote in their Facebook post.
Michael Ward’s Legacy
The Minnesotan musician was the guitarist for The Wallflowers for six years from 1995 to 2001. He played on two of the band’s biggest hit albums, Bringing Down The Horse and Breach from 1996 and 2000, respectively.
According to numerous sources, including MTV, Ward decided to leave the band due to personal issues with The Wallflowers’ frontman Jakob Dylan.
“For me, what music is all about is sitting down and creating songs from scratch,” Ward told MTV in an interview around the time he departed the band. “That’s my life, and it’s not really about adding guitar parts to someone else’s music. That’s not really satisfying for me. […] Jakob is great at what he does, and power to him, but it just isn’t my thing.”
After departing the band, Ward and Dylan appeared to have made up and occasionally commented on each other’s Instagram posts. Ward had since gone on to start the band School Of Fish.
We wish Ward’s family, friends, and fans nothing but the best during this difficult time.
Photo courtesy of Michael Ward’s Facebook page
