On August 10, 2008, Hayes' wife found him on the floor near a treadmill inside his home located just east of Memphis, Tennessee. A Shelby County, Tennessee sheriff's deputy responded to Hayes' home. He was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, where he was pronounced dead at 2:08pm, at the age of 65. The cause of death was not immediately known, though the stroke he suffered in 2006 is considered a factor. At the time of his death, he was preparing his first new studio album since 1995
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R.I.P