Photo: Chris McKay/WireImage
Jeff LaBar, the guitarist for glam metal band Cinderella, has died. He was 58.
“I’m currently at a loss for words,” he continued, sharing photos of the musician through the years. “I love you pop!”
“Heavy hearts cannot begin to describe the feeling of losing our brother Jeff. The bond between us over decades of creating music and touring the world is something that we as a band uniquely shared. Those memories with Jeff will be forever alive in our hearts. It’s unimaginable that one of our band brothers has left us,” the remaining bandmembers said in a statement. “We’re sending his wife Debinique, his son Sebastian, family, and friends our deepest condolences. Jeff’s memory and music will be with us forever. We all… band, family and management appreciate the overwhelming outpouring of love. Rest In Peace Jeff.”
LaBar’s bandmates Tom Keifer, Eric Brittingham and Fred Coury also mourned the artist in a statement of their own.
“Heavy hearts cannot begin to describe the feeling of losing our brother Jeff. The bond between us over decades of creating music and touring the world is something that we as a band uniquely shared,” a statement from the band provided to PEOPLE read. “Those memories with Jeff will be forever alive in our hearts. It’s unimaginable that one of our band brothers has left us. We’re sending his wife Debinique, his son Sebastian, family, and friends our deepest condolences. "
“Jeff’s memory and music will be with us forever,” they added. “We all… band, family and management appreciate the overwhelming outpouring of love.”
LaBar was found dead in his Nashville apartment on Wednesday, the musician’s first wife Gaile LaBar-Bernhardttold TMZ.
No cause of death has been released.
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LaBar joined Cinderella in 1985, replacing guitarist Michael Kelly Smith (né Michael Schermick) after he left the group to form Britny Fox.
Alongside founding members Keifer and Brittingham, LaBar released Cinderella’s debut studio album,Night Songs, in 1986 after signing with Mercury Records.
The album, which featured the smash hit single “Nobody’s Fool” and “Somebody Save Me,” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 charts and was certified double platinum a year following its release.
Cinderella saw equal commercial success with 1988’sLong Cold Winterand its singles “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone),” “The Last Mile” and “Coming Home.”
The band put out two more albums — 1990’sHeartbreak Stationand 1994’sStill Climbing— before going on hiatus in 1995.
However, Cinderella’s break didn’t last long and LaBar reunited with his bandmates a year later. Together, the group released the compilation albumOnce Upon A…in 1997.
Jeff LaBar.Scott Legato/Getty
Throughout his career, LaBar toured with notable acts such as Poison, Bon Jovi, RATT, Quiet Riot and Skid Row.
In addition to his work in Cinderella, LaBar played guitar for Naked Beggars — which also featured Brittingham — and released a solo album titledOne For The Roadin 2014.
LaBar said during a 2016 interview with theMetal Edge Magazine’s Another FN Podcastthat he had was leaving the music industry behind him and had enrolled in a culinary arts associate degree program at The Art Institute of Tennessee.
“I’m pretty much done playing music,” he explained. “I can’t do it on a high-school level anymore. With Cinderella, we have crew, we have bus drivers, we have buses and trucks and all. I wake up, I go on stage, I do my thing. On the level that I’ve been doing it for the past few years, I just don’t have it in me anymore. I can’t travel in a van with trailers and [haul] my own gear until four in the morning. It’s just too hard. I enjoy cooking more.”
source: people.com
