Update: Chuck Biscuits alive, blogger falls for “death hoax”

It appears Chuck Biscuits (born Charles Montgomery) isn’t dead after all.

The tale of the death of Chuck Biscuits, a drummer who’d worked with Danzig and Black Flag, was picked up across mainstream outlets like NPR and NME yesterday. We ran a post about it as well, but it appears that the news of Biscuits’ death was actually the result of what appears to be a practical joke on a Brooklyn blogger.

The post that kicked off the story cited a private e-mail correspondence with unnamed family members, and it appears everyone took the story at face value. After the hoax gained traction, the brother of Chuck Biscuits, a man named Bob Montgomery, reached out to the blogger who’d originally posted the story and indicated that he was going down to Seattle from Canada in the wake of the rumors:

“Chuck and I have been somewhat estranged for a time, but this seems fishy. I am going to his home to get to the bottom of this, I will let you know one way or the other. If this is a hoax, I will pop Chuck in his beak. I am allowed. He is my little brother.”

Later, Montgomery confirmed that his brother was alive and that the tale was pure practical joke:

“I just wanted to let you know that Chuck [Biscuits] is alive and as well as can be expected,” said Bob Montgomery, Chuck’s brother, in an e-mail sent to the author earlier today. “I drove to his home in Seattle [from Canada] to confirm that fact.”

Suspicions rose almost immediately after heavy metal website Blabbermouth.net picked up the news of Chuck’s death from this blog yesterday and made it viral, as Bob and at least one of Chuck’s former band mates had heard nothing of the former Danzig drummer’s passing. After a brief e-mail exchange with JG2Land, Bob Montgomery decided to physically visit his brother to find out the truth once and for all.

“The only reason I put any stock in the Internet rumours was because [James Greene, Jr.] used Chucks wife’s name [in private e-mails],” Bob wrote after his visit to Chuck’s house. “Otherwise, I would have filed it under the African ruler looking for money to enlarge his penis file. I am really curious as to who’s been sending [him] this info.”

Comments after the original post also indicate that Biscuits was never suffering from cancer in the first place.