Chuck Biscuits Alive and Well, Contrary to Reports

What do Kanye West and former Danzig and Social Distortion drummer Chuck Biscuits have in common? Within the last month, both have been the subject of online death hoaxes. The difference between Kanye's case and Biscuits'? No one reported West's death, but everyone and their brother ran posts Thursday, claiming the drummer (born Charles Montgomery) had died from throat cancer.

But Biscuits is alive. Very much so. The blogger who first ran an obituary on Biscuits, claiming he'd passed on Oct. 24 at the age of 44, surrounded by family members, is now recanting his initial report, which sparked a wave of erroneous reports on a number of reputable news sites. Noisecreep also ran a story on his passing.

But now, that blogger's claiming he's received statements from the drummer's family that he's OK. One email, from Chuck's sister-in-law, reads, "This note is on behalf of Bob Montgomery, who ask me (his wife) to let you know that Chuck is alive. Bob is on his way to see him now and will send you a follow up email in the near future." The blogger maintains he'd been in contact with a couple, claiming to be Chuck and his wife, since May and that he's been the victim of an "elaborate hoax," one he swears he was not in on.

"Chuck's wife is allegedly the one who has been sending out mass e-mails about Chuck's condition to family and friends; I didn't use her name below because I didn't know if she'd be comfortable with that, and it didn't seem like a good time to bring it up, considering her husband was dying," the blogger writes on his site. "I'm still not going to use her name on the same grounds."

The blogger then points out that he's not the most popular guy. "I know plenty of people who severely dislike me and would take any chance they could to play on my gullibility to make me look as stupid as possible (i.e. e-mail me for six months pretending to be a dying drummer I admire)," he defends. "If this is all a big fat lie, I'm sorry, but I promise I was duped just as hard as you."