Tragic, unconfirmed reports have come in that Elliott Smith has taken his own life at the age of 34. Various rumors circulated the internet throughout Tuesday (October 21st) and then finally Charlie Ramirez, the webmaster of Elliott Smith's official website, Sweetadeline.net, posted an obituary on the site. Early Wednesday morning MTV News was reporting that Smith's body was found in his Silverlake, Los Angeles, apartment by a female friend, with a knife wound that appeared to be self-inflicted. He was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead at approximately 12:18 PM on Tuesday. We are very saddened by the loss of such a gentle soul and musical genius, and our thoughts go out to his loved ones.

He was born Steven Paul Elliott Smith in Omaha, Nebraska on August 6, 1969. He first came to the attention of music fans as a member of the band Heatmiser, but truly made a name for himself when he went solo. Smith gained national attention for his 1998 Oscar nomination and Academy Awards performance of the song Miss Misery, from the film Good Will Hunting. Since the release of his 2000 album Figure 8, Smith had been relatively quiet, but in late March he gave us an opportunity to catch up with him for a cover story article we published in June. Smith invited us into his house and studio for a day and seemed generally in good spirits. We found him to be humble, generous and soft-spoken. At the time he said he was 90% done with the double album he had been working on for over a year: From a Basement On the Hill. It is unknown at this point whether or not he was able to put the finishing touches on that album before his death.

Smith mostly appeared to be optimistic about his future when we spoke to him. He excitedly played us songs from his new record and seemed very happy about them. "Thanks for coming around," Smith said as we finished up our interview with him and prepared to leave his studio. "You know, for a couple of years I dropped out of just about everything. But I feel better today. I think it'll be a good record." Elliott Smith: may his good soul rest in peace.

Read the full article on Elliott Smith from Issue 4.

Visit Elliott Smith's official site: www.sweetadeline.net