Jay Bennett has strangely acted as a recent conversation piece times too numerous to recall. One music lover emailed me the media report of Bennett's lawsuit against Jeff Tweedy for owed royalties. I responded that I wanted to sue Jeff Tweedy too--for kicking Jay Bennett out of Wilco. Then, at a holiday outing just yesterday, I pointed to Bennett and Tweedy's relationship as an example of how creativity often comes out of tension, and that by removing a major source of annoyance from his life Jeff Tweedy killed much of the creativity in his band Wilco by firing Jay Bennett. A few months back, during a sonic lull at a Wilco concert, I cathartically shouted: "Where's Jay?" Jay Bennett, unfortunately, is dead. The former songwriter/multi-instrumentalist for Wilco during its golden age passed away in his sleep this weekend. Strangely, it was Bennett's appearance on the silver screen, rather than on any CD, that may be most indelibly etched into the minds of Wilco's fans. Wilco was the subject of a major motion picture, 2002's I Am Trying to Break Your Heart--an aptly titled film about the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and the band-member ejections and record company rejections that ensued. Therein, Bennett's creativity is hard to gainsay (watch him in action here)--as is his painintheassivity. In one scene, his overbearing nitpicking results in lead singer Tweedy visiting the bathroom to vomit. Bennett's contributions to Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot--three of the seminal albums of the last fifteen years--were huge. He transformed a cool alt-country band into Gram Parsons meets Pink Floyd. Then he got the boot, and Wilco--a band that its devoted fans once regarded as "the only band that matters"--doesn't seem to matter as much anymore. Jay Bennett, rest in peace.