Blues guitarist Jeff Healey has died at the age of 41 from cancer. The musician, blind from the age of one after being afflicted with eye cancer, had in the last eighteen months had tumours removed from his legs and lungs.
Healey was born in Toronto in 1966 and, despite his blindness, taught himself to play guitar in his trademark style, with the instrument laid flat across his lap. At the age of seventeen he formed the band Blue Direction and went on to sign with Arista following an appearance in Patrick Swayze film 'Roadhouse'. The group's 1988 album 'See The Light' achieved platinum sales, and in 1990, the band were named Entertainers Of The Year at Canada's Juno Awards.
Ultimately, Healey withdrew somewhat from the world of more contemporary music, however, preferring to concentrate in later years on vintage jazz, releasing three CDs of American twenties and thirties jazz, as well as amassing a collection of around 25,000 78s. He also ran a music club in Toronto, at which he alternately appeared with a rock band and a jazz band.
Healey's latest album, his first rock LP for eight years, is due for release later this year. He is survived by his wife and two children.