King Diamond has paid tribute to his former bandmate Timi Hansen. The Danish heavy metal singer addressed Hansen's passing during the November 4 concert by his namesake band in Atlanta, Georgia. King told the crowd at the show (see video below): "Most of you might already know that we lost Timi Hansen today — our old, old bass player from [KING DIAMOND's] 'Abigail' [album], and, before that, MERCYFUL FATE. It is super fucking sad that he's gone. He's one of my best friends. He's been my favorite bass player through the entire time I've known him. And we're gonna play this song for him tonight. And every single time that we play this song in the future is for him. 'Black Horsemen'." Hansen died on Monday (November 4) after a long battle with cancer. Earlier that day, King posted a message on social media expressing his sadness over his friend's passing, He wrote: "I just found out that I lost one of my dearest friends, who has been fighting cancer for a long time, in such an incredibly brave way. He was not just my roommate on the early MERCYFUL FATE tours, but he was always my favorite bass player of all times. I was fortunate to have been able to visit him at his apartment with some other good friends, and we had a great afternoon that will never be forgotten. "When I last talked to Timi on the phone on October 24th, I could understand that things had gotten tougher than they ever were, and yet he said 'we fight on.' "I feel so so sad for his entire family, you have my absolute deepest sympathy. "Rest in Peace my dear dear friend." Timi went public with his diagnosis in early August after it was announced that he wouldn't participate in MERCYFUL FATE's 2020 reunion. Filling in for him will be ARMORED SAINT and FATES WARNING bassist Joey Vera. The 61-year-old Hansen played in MERCYFUL FATE from 1981 to 1985 and again from 1992 to 1993. He was also a member of KING DIAMOND from 1985 to 1987. MERCYFUL FATE will reunite for an unspecified number of concerts throughout Europe during the summer of 2020, including next year's edition of the Copenhell festival, set to take place June 17-20, 2020 in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1998, METALLICA paid tribute to MERCYFUL FATE by recording a medley of classic MERCYFUL FATE songs on the album "Garage Inc." Titled "Mercyful Fate", the medley included parts from "Satan's Fall", "Curse of the Pharaohs", "A Corpse Without Soul", "Into the Coven" and "Evil". Lars Ulrich of METALLICA (a fellow Dane) played drums on a new version of MERCYFUL FATE's "Return of the Vampire" on the "In the Shadows" album, which came out in 1993.
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