Chris Permatteo, the bass guitarist for HADDONFIELD, passed away suddenly on Thursday July 11, 2019. While Chris is believed to have died of natural causes, the exact cause of death is still unknown at this time. Chris’ family, friends, and bandmates are shocked and devastated by this tragic loss.
From HADDONFIELD’s lead singer Adam Green: “Last night my dear friend Chris Permatteo passed away suddenly from what is believed to be natural causes. It’s shocking, confusing, and devastating. Sadly, we won’t have answers for many weeks. From our many years of writing and performing music together in our band HADDONFIELD we shared a brotherhood that anyone who has ever been in a band for a long time can understand. Chris was an incredibly gifted bass player and he was always a voice of reason. Forever curious, excited, worried, practical, nervous- all in a great, “responsible” OCD kind of way. But most of all Chris was always kind, supportive, and generous.”
“On Saturday he randomly texted me just to remind me that he’s always rooting for me and to say how proud he is of the things I’ve accomplished in my career. That was Chris. When I made HATCHET I named two of the characters after him (“Mr. and Mrs. Permatteo”) and gave them the two best deaths in the film. To me it was just a fun shout-out to my friend but to Chris it meant the absolute world when he heard his name in the movie. I’ll always be grateful for our years performing together and I’m especially thankful that we got to do it again one last time when HADDONFIELD played the Worcester Palladium at Rock And Shock in 2017. But most of all I’ll always be grateful for his friendship. It’s been hard enough living 3,000 miles away from my true home for the last 20 years, but today I’m so far away from my friends that I may as well live on another planet.”
“To everyone grieving back home- I’m sorry I’m not there with you but you’re each in my every thought. To Chris’ amazing wife Michelle- absolutely anything you ever need- …ANYTHING. And to my bandmates Jon, Alix, Gregg, and (more recently) Mike: Yesterday is alive in my memory, we have to think of the times we were young and free, to keep alive the spirit of the young…
Sleep well, P-man. I love you.”
