Manchester Orchestra drummer Tim Very has died. The Atlanta rock band announced the loss on social media on Saturday (February 14), writing: “We’ve all been dreading sharing this news as we are all still in absolute disbelief.” No cause of death has been reported. Very was 42.
The son of a drummer father, Very picked up his own sticks for the first time as a teenager in Pensacola, Florida. Dave Grohl was an early influence, and some of the first songs Very learned to play came from Nirvana’s catalog. “I wasn’t one of those guys that got to start playing when I was like six years old, got lessons out the gate,” he told the podcast Drummers On Drumming in 2022. “It took me a little while to kind of find my identity. I instantly knew that this was something I was going to be doing for a long time.”
Very joined Manchester Orchestra in 2011, taking over for Jeremiah Edmond. Very played his first show with the band in London, during the UK leg of an international tour in support of Simple Math. “I threw up during it,” he told Alter The Press the day after the performance. “I can talk about it for hours, but I’ll just say this is what I’ve always wanted to do and these are guys I’ve known for a long time. It’s the best.”
Very would go on to become Manchester Orchestra’s longest-serving drummer, appearing on the group’s past three studio albums: 2014’s Cope, 2017’s A Black Mile to the Surface, and 2021’s The Million Masks of God. The band shared their most recent EP, The Valley of Vision, in 2023, and are set to release a live album, Union Chapel (London, England), this March. Outside of his work with Manchester Orchestra, Very was also a seasoned session musician, producer, and co-founder of the Georgia production company Super Canoe.
“Tim was instantly likable and interacted with everyone he met with kindness and warmth. His laugh was infectious and he immediately made people feel invited and encouraged,” Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull, Robert McDowell, and Andy Price said in a statement. “He had an undeniable light that was only matched by his dedication and love for the craft that he was clearly put on earth to do. No words can ever do him justice. Please know, if you are someone who loved Tim, he loved you too.”
Read Manchester Orchestra’s full statement below.