Jeff Healey Dies Of Cancer At Age 41

Jeff Healey lost his long battle with cancer and passed away in Toronto's St. Joseph's Hospital on Sunday.

The 41 year old, who rose to fame as a blues-rock guitarist and singer with his appearance in the Patrick Swayze film Road House and the 1988 See The Light album, went blind as an infant from a rare form of cancer called retinoblastoma. That didn't prevent him from learning to play guitar at age three, and he formed The Jeff Healey Band with drummer Tom Stephen and bassist Joe Rockman in his late teens. The group's biggest hit was "Angel Eyes," while "Hideaway" was nominated for a best instrumental Grammy Award. They took the 1990 entertainer of the year Juno Award.

Healey was a huge jazz buff and owned more than 30,000 78-rpm records, which he put to good use as the host of jazz shows on CBC Radio and Toronto's Jazz FM. He also played trumpet and clarinet and performed and released three albums with a group called Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards.

Healey's first blues-rock album in eight years, Mess Of Blues, will be released by Stony Plain on April 22. It was mostly done in Toronto studios, though two songs were from a concert in London, England and another pair were recorded at the artist's Toronto club, Jeff Healey's Roadhouse. He owned another Toronto nightclub before pulling up stakes for the new location.

Healey endured a number of health setbacks over the past few years, undergoing operations to remove cancerous tissue in both his legs and his lungs. But aggressive radiation treatments and chemotherapy failed to stop the disease from spreading.

Healey continued to tour across Canada and was set to play in the U.K. and Germany this spring. His final performance was on Feb. 2 in Goderich, Ont.

Healey is survived by his wife Cristie, his 13-year-old daughter Rachel and his three-year-old son Derek. No funeral or memorial arrangements have been announced yet.