Jeff Austin is still alive despite rumors floating around on social media of his suicide. On June 22, Austin released a statement on his Facebook page that read, “My friends… due to a to a medical emergency I am unfortunately unable to play my sets next week at ROMP music festival, Back Home Appalachian Arts & Music Festival, and Smoky Run Music Festival. Thanks for your understanding and continued support.” There is no elaboration on what exactly happened to the bluegrass legend to cause this “medical emergency.”

Austin, a native of Arlington Heights, Illinois, had been the subject of rumors that began on the night of June 21.

Since April 2014, Austin has been forging his own solo career after departing the Yonder Mountain String Band. In a statement at the time, the rest of the band said that they were in “full support” of Austin’s solo efforts. Prior to his departure, Austin had been absent from many of the band’s shows thanks to the birth of his daughter.In a July 2018 interview with Westword, Austin spoke about his family saying, “Yes. I have three kids. I took a break from touring with Yonder Mountain in 2014 when my daughter was born. You make a lot of wrong decisions and some right ones. And the most right decision I ever made was to stay home with my newly born little girl. I didn’t grow up with a father, so I thought I should stay home and be a dad.”