ACCEPT Singer MARK TORNILLO's 26-Year-Old Son Dies

ACCEPT singer Mark Tornillo's 26-year-old son, Michael Tyler Tornillo, died on Sunday, August 9. No cause of death has been revealed.

The band announced Michael's passing in a social media post earlier today. They wrote: "In Loving Memory of Michael Tyler Tornillo

"It is with great sadness that we join Cheri and Mark Tornillo as they mourn the loss of their beloved son, Michael Tyler Tornillo, who passed away on Sunday, August 9th. Their grief is unimaginable and we ask everyone to kindly respect the family's privacy during this difficult time. We appreciate your love and support for Cheri, Mark, their daughter Nicole and her husband Matt and baby Nate. May they find peace and comfort in the days to come!

"The ACCEPT Family"

Mark Tornillo joined ACCEPT in 2009 as the replacement for the band's original lead singer, Udo Dirkscheider. He can be heard on ACCEPT's last four studio albums, "Blood Of The Nations" (2010),"Stalingrad" (2012),"Blind Rage" (2014) and "The Rise Of Chaos" (2017).

In a 2018 interview with Metal Shock Finland, Tornillo stated about what it was like to first join ACCEPT: "It was frightening. When we first announced what was going to happen, there was really not many people on board with it. Online, there was a lot of naysayers, a lot of badmouthing. It was very disheartening. We all sat down and said, 'Look, we have to make an amazing record, or else we're gonna die here. This is going to be a swansong. We have to make an amazing record.' And that's what we did. We spent a lot of time writing 'Blood Of The Nations' and a lot of time recording it, and I think in retrospect, it paid off. If that album wasn't what it was, we wouldn't be here."

Asked about fans who have yet to "accept" him, Mark said: "Everybody is entitled to their opinion. I'm a purist too with certain things. I get it. But I think we've moved on. We're almost a different band at this point. We really are a different band at this point. We still pay tribute to the old ACCEPT by playing the old songs — I mean, we have the two people that wrote most of the songs, [so] we have to. That's always going to be part of ACCEPT's history. You can't change it. All we can change is the future. But everyone's entitled to their opinion, and I get it. I wish them all well, and I wish Udo well, and his band, you know. No hard feelings on my part, that's for sure."