Salvia’s lead guitarist and founder, Wayne Swinny, died from a brain hemorrhage after performing on the first three dates of a band tour.
Guitarist Wayne Swinny, a founding member of the rock band Saliva, died Wednesday at age 59 after suffering a brain hemorrhage the previous day in the midst of a tour by the group.
Swinny was the only current member to have been with the nu-metal outfit since its first album in 1996. Over the intervening 27 years, Saliva had released 11 albums, been nominated for a hard rock Grammy, and reached No. 1 on Billboard’s alternative rock chart with the outfit’s biggest song, 2002’s “Always.”
The band announced Swinny’s death hours after first going on social media Wednesday to reveal that the longtime lead guitarist had been in the ICU since being “discovered in medical distress” Tuesday morning.
The group’s last show with Swinny, on the eve of his hemorrhage, was Monday night in Nashville at the Brooklyn Bowl. Tuesday, after he was admitted to the ICU, the rest of the band had gone on to do a show in the Pittsburgh area, with a fill-in guitarist.
