** Update (June 25): Jeff Austin has died since this article was published. Click here to read a touching tribute by the Yonder Mountain String Band.
Original:
Famed mandolin player Jeff Austin had to cancel some upcoming festival dates at around the same time that death rumors started swirling online.
Sadly, many of the Jeff Austin death rumors indicated that he took his own life. With the advent of social media, it is a lot easier for these rumors to spread like wildfire.
Of course, for everyone that ends up true, multiple others are false.
Rumors of Jeff Austin suicide
— Taylor Farley (@tashaunlafranz) June 22, 2019
Someone please tell me the rumors of Jeff Austin committing suicide are false… please tell me this isn’t true. I don’t wanna believe it until something official is announced. I fucking hate rumors.
— PhishatDicks (@PhishatDicks) June 22, 2019
Wow words can not describe how upsetting it is to hear of the news of Jeff Austin passing… So many amazing memories
— James Servin (@JamesServin) June 22, 2019
You might want to delete this, since the Jeff Austin who was the founding mandolin player for Yonder Mountain String Band apparently committed suicide last night and a bunch of mourning fans are gonna see this and assume it's the same one.
— Boy. Man. (@AGayPhish) June 22, 2019
With these Jeff Austin death questions on Twitter, the mandolin player himself too to Facebook on Saturday afternoon. This post came hours after the original suicide rumors began to make their rounds on Twitter.
While fans around the world were starting to mourn the fact that Jeff Austin took his own life, the truth is that he is suffering from a medical emergency and had to cancel his sets next week at the ROMP Music Festival, Back Home Appalachian Arts & Music Festival and Smoky Run Music Festival.
While the Jeff Austin death rumors continue to spread, it seems unlikely that a dead man could make a Facebook post denying them. Of course, there will always be a conspiracy theorist among the crowd.
Jeff Austin is a mandolin player best known for his role in the Yonder Mountain String Band.