Country Singer Jessi Zazu Wariner Dies at 28

Country music singer Jessi Zazu Wariner has passed away after battling cancer. The guitarist, singer and co-founder of Those Darlins was 28.

Wariner passed away at a Nashville hospital on Tuesday surrounded by friends and family, The Tennessean reports.

The singer was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. During her final tour with Those Darlins, the band sold T-shirts with one of the titles of their songs, “Ain’t Afraid,” printed on them to raise $50,000 for her medical bills.

On Tuesday, Those Darlins drummer, Linwood Regensburg, shared a statement on the group’s Facebook page about Wariner’s death.

“Yesterday I said goodbye to my best friend, longtime partner in crime and hero, Jessi Zazu Wariner,” the post read.

“She maintained a sense of humor and a commanding presence up until and through her final moments. Shout-out to your contagious spirit that inspired all who crossed it. Shout-out to the creative dynamo who continued to flourish even against insurmountable odds. Shout-out to all the little triumphs over the last 16 months. Shout-out to the ridiculous van rides and the fights and to the fact that we never turned our backs on one another over the last decade. Shout-out to the dreams we made and the ones left to come. And shout-out to all of you who have supported her until the end.”

In a video posted in December of 2016, Wariner explained that she was battling cervical cancer.

“This is typically what they would call a ‘no cure scenario,’ but I refuse to believe that to be the case,” she said. “I feel healthy, happy, hopeful, determined, positive, and full of sparks and nails. In a sense: there’s a tumor growing on my body, I don’t know what lays in store, but I ain’t afraid anymore. Yes, I guess I am a mystic mind after all.”

In June of this year, Wariner gave an update on her health.

“Before I felt defeated, because I had put so much energy into the band, and it was imploding. I didn’t think anybody heard what I had been trying to say all those years,” Zazu said. “But after the ‘Ain’t Afraid’ video, I realized people had heard me the whole time. They wrote me about how our music impacted their lives in a significant way. I don’t have words to say how much that meant to me.”

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