A statue and memorial bench honoring former Every Time I Die guitarist and professional wrestler Andy Williams are planned for his hometown of North Tonawanda, New York.
The memorial will be placed in the city’s Gratwick Park. Fans can support the project by buying a brick engraved with a personal message, which will be laid as part of the memorial. The bricks are available through the Andy Williams Forever website. No date has yet been given for when the statue and bench will be completed.
The plans were made public on Monday, September 28, a day after Williams‘ family, friends and fellow musicians and wrestlers gathered for a public celebration of his life at Buffalo RiverWorks in Buffalo, New York. The free event on Sunday, September 27, included speeches, musical tributes and a video tribute made from photos and clips sent in by fans, and it was streamed online for those who could not attend.
Acoustic performances had been announced from Stephen Brodsky and Adam McGrath of Cave In, Dan O’Connor and Alan Day of Four Year Strong, and Anthony Green of Circa Survive. Speakers includes Williams‘ partner, his parents, the mayor of North Tonawanda, his long-time wrestling partner Jesse Guilmette, and former Every Time I Die bandmate Jordan Buckley.
Memorial T-shirts and hoodies have also been sold through Andy Williams Forever, with proceeds going to charities chosen by the Williams family.
Williams died on September 5 at the age of 48. He collapsed at the end of a tag-team match with Guilmette, known in the ring as “The Blade”, at an Enjoy Wrestling event at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale, Pennsylvania. Medical staff at the show performed CPR before he was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His cause of death has not been publicly released.
He co-founded Every Time I Die in Buffalo in 1998 and played on all nine of the band’s studio albums, the last being 2021’s Radical, before the group split in January 2022. He went on to form Atomic Rule, the band he was still working with at the time of his death.
Williams wrestled his first full match in 2015 and signed with All Elite Wrestling in 2019, where he competed as “The Butcher” alongside Guilmette as a tag team for seven years. After their contracts ended in June, the pair returned to the independent circuit.
Following his death, former Every Time I Die members and AEW paid tribute to him.
