After a night out drinking, hide was found hanged with a towel in his Tokyo apartment. Authorities officially deemed Matsumoto's death a suicide, his mates and other X Japan members all refused to recognize it as a suicide.

hide (written in all capital letters when he was with X Japan and in all lowercase letters when solo) was a popular Japanese musician, most famous as lead guitarist for the heavy metal band X Japan from 1987 to 1997. He also had a succesful solo career and co-founded the US based band Zilch.