Jeff Walls, co-founder, guitarist and songwriter for suburban Atlanta college-rock favorites Guadalcanal Diary, died on Wednesday after battling a very rare form of pulmonary hypertension that only can be cured through a double lung transplant.
Murray Attaway, the band’s frontman, announced the news on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon: “Today at 4:16 pm, surrounded by family, Jeff Walls left us. I have no other words.”
In April, Attaway had launched a Gofundme crowdfunding campaign in a bid to raise tens of thousands of dollars to help “cover the staggering costs of all the procedures he has and will endure.”
According to Attaway’s post on Gofundme, Walls — who also plays under the alias Flesh Hammer in the garage-rock act The Woggles — has been diagnosed with Pulmonary Veno-Occlusive Disease, or PVOD. The extremely rare disease “is caused by progressive blockages of the small capillaries in the lungs. This causes the heart to have to work harder, until eventual heart failure.”
The cause of the disease, Attaway writes, is not know, but is believed to be the result of genetic mutation. The only cure is a double lung transplant, he writes — and sometimes a heart transplant also is required.
Walls and Attaway co-founded Guadalcanal Diary in Marietta, Georgia, in the early ’80s, and the band released four albums on Elektra Records between 1984 and 1989, scoring college-rock hits with singles “Litany (Life Goes On)” and “Always Saturday.” Guadalcanal Diary reunited for a few years in the late ’80s, then again briefly in 2011 to celebrate their 30th anniversary.
I’m very sad to hear of Jeff Walls’ passing. We, he, and Guadalcanal Diary shared many good times over the years. R.I.P., Jeff. https://t.co/cbLx8CjSUL
— Mike Mills (@m_millsey) May 30, 2019
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R.I.P., good sir.
Gutted to hear of this news. I checked the web earlier this week to see if the GoFundMe total had been met & check on Jeff’s status, but no info. RIP Jeff – you & your crew were the soundtrack to my life in the 80’s. Grateful I got to catch your 30th anniversary at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta. God be with your family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO3US3kRc78
The GoFundMe is still active:
https://www.gofundme.com/jeff-walls-medical-fund
And the planned fundraiser concerts will go on as a memorial shows
https://creativeloafing.com/content-427973-Jeff-Walls%2C-1956-2019