Vic Chesnutt, the Georgia-based singer-songwriter known for his darkly comic songs, died yesterday in Athens, Georgia, after spending several days in a coma caused by an overdose of muscle relaxers. Chesnutt, who was confined to a wheelchair after a car crash at age 18, was discovered in the late 1980s by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, who produced his first two albums, Little and West of Rome.

It’s unclear whether Chesnutt’s overdose was accidental or intentional. His close friend Kristin Hersh tweeted, “No one knows much: another suicide attempt, looks bad, coma,” on December 24th. Chesnutt’s persistent medical problems had made him a harsh critic of American health care.

“He possessed an unearthly energy and yet was humanistic with the common man in mind,” Patti Smith said in a statement. “He was entirely present and entirely somewhere else. A mystical somewhere else. A child and an old guy as he called himself.