Metal Rocker Dead at 55 After Discovering Late-Stage Cancer

X Japan's bassist Heath, whose real name is Horisho Morie, was reportedly diagnosed with an advanced cancer in early 2023

Heath, the bassist of influential J-rock band X Japan, has died. He was 55 years old.

JRockNews reports that the musician, whose real name is Horisho Morie, died at the end of October.

Heath was reportedly diagnosed with cancer in early 2023. Though he consulted with a physician, the cancer was in an advanced stage and his health declined so quickly that he didn't even share his diagnosis with his bandmates.

Heath joined X Japan, one of the most successful rock groups in Japan's history, in 1992 and was featured on two albums before the band split in 1997. He rejoined the group in 2007 for live performances, including Coachella in 2018. The group's former bassist, Taiji Sawada, died in 2011.

On Nov. 1, the band's drummer and frontman Yoshiki shared that he "made the decision to return to Japan" and canceled an award acceptance in San Francisco because "someone close to me passed away," but did not specify who it was at the time.

The news of Heath's death comes just two weeks after the announcement of fellow J-rock legend Atsushi Sakurai's death . The Buck-Tick frontman, 57, whose band was peers with X Japan, died Oct. 19 from complications stemming from a brain hemorrhage.