Photo via Modest Mouse’s Official Facebook

Jeremiah Green, one of the founding members and drummer for Modest Mouse, the indie rock mainstays who rose to stardom in the early 2000s, passed away on Saturday, Dec. 31, according to his bandmate, Issac Brock. Green was 45. 

“I don’t know a way to ease into this: Today, we lost our dear friend Jeremiah. He laid down to rest and simply faded out,” wrote Brock on the band’s official Instagram account. “I’d like to say a bunch of pretty words right now, but it just isn’t the time. These will come later and from many people,” he stated. 

Relix initially reported on Green’s health on Dec. 27, after the musician’s mother asked her Facebook followers to keep her son in their thoughts. She wrote: “Please send healing vibes for my son, Jeremiah Green, who is battling stage 4 cancer. He’s so strong and so brave and hanging in there!” Modest Mouse followed up by confirming the news. 

Green was born on March 4, 1977, in Oahu, Hawaii, while his father was stationed on the island and serving in the Army. The family later relocated to Moxee, Wash., and eventually, Seattle, where the future musician immersed himself in the local music scene.

Green picked up the sticks in his early teens and began taking drum lessons, but quit shortly after that, feeling uninspired by his choice of teacher. According to the monthly publication, Modern Drummer, Green was inspired by The Cure, particularly the drumming on their 1982 LP, Pornography. 

By high school, Green had begun his touring and recording career. And shortly thereafter, in 1993, he became a founding member of Modest Mouse, along with Brock and Eric Judy. In the mid-1990s, he performed in groups such as Satisfact, Red Stars Theory, Vells and Psychic Emperor. 

In 2003, Green departed from Modest Mouse, later revealing he had suffered from a nervous breakdown and had sought treatment. The band tapped Benjamin Weikel as Green’s replacement. Weikel appeared on the group’s 2004 LP, Good News for People Who Love Bad Bad News, and inevitably in May 2004, following the commercial success of the record, Green rejoined Modest Mouse. 

In 2007, Green lent a backbeat to Graig Markel’s album Via Novella, and the following year, delivered a drum breaks 7” collaboration with Plastiq Phantom under the alias World Gang. Along with his Modest Mouse bandmates, the group’s most recent drops include 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, 2015’s Strangers to Ourselves and 2021’s The Golden Casket. 

Green is survived by his wife, Lauren and their son.