On Wednesday, January 25th, RIOT guitarist and founder Mark Reale passed away due to complications from Crohn's disease in a San Antonio hospital. He was 57 year old.
Reale had been in a coma since January 11th due to a subarachnoid hemorrhage. He had battled Crohn's for most of his life, working and performing while enduring almost constant pain and the side effects of treatment for his illness. He was in Texas bravely attempting to practice for the band's scheduled shows, but was felled by a severe onset of Crohn's symptoms, which eventually put him in the Intensive Care Unit.
Real's Riot bandmates have issued the following statement:
"To friends and fans of Mark Reale and Riot, we are deeply saddened to confirm that Mark has lost his battle with a lifelong illness. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated by Mark's family, friends, and bandmates at this difficult time."
Metal Blade founder and CEO of Brian Slagel commented following the tragic news:
"I was a huge fan of Riot's Fire Down Under album and got to interview them for my fanzine. Great guys and I was lucky enough to finally re-issue Fire Down Under and the other early Riot albums on Metal Blade. We signed the band for their second run, so to speak, and put out some records in the '90s that did well, especially in Europe and Japan. It was a pleasure working with them and Mark was always a kind soul an amazing player who really has a big time place in the history of metal. One of the really nice guys who put out some incredible stuff."
Reale had been in a coma since January 11th due to a subarachnoid hemorrhage. He had battled Crohn's for most of his life, working and performing while enduring almost constant pain and the side effects of treatment for his illness. He was in Texas bravely attempting to practice for the band's scheduled shows, but was felled by a severe onset of Crohn's symptoms, which eventually put him in the Intensive Care Unit.
Real's Riot bandmates have issued the following statement:
"To friends and fans of Mark Reale and Riot, we are deeply saddened to confirm that Mark has lost his battle with a lifelong illness. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated by Mark's family, friends, and bandmates at this difficult time."
Metal Blade founder and CEO of Brian Slagel commented following the tragic news:
"I was a huge fan of Riot's Fire Down Under album and got to interview them for my fanzine. Great guys and I was lucky enough to finally re-issue Fire Down Under and the other early Riot albums on Metal Blade. We signed the band for their second run, so to speak, and put out some records in the '90s that did well, especially in Europe and Japan. It was a pleasure working with them and Mark was always a kind soul an amazing player who really has a big time place in the history of metal. One of the really nice guys who put out some incredible stuff."
I read about this the other day. Never listened to Riot but terrible news regardless. RIP.
