Charlie Colin Dies: Founding Bassist For Rock Band Train Was 58
Charlie Colin, founding bassist of the rock band Train, has died after reportedly slipping in a shower. He was 58.
Colin’s mother reported the death to TMZ. She said her son was housesitting for a friend in Brussels, Belgium, when the bathroom accident occurred. Colin’s body was discovered by the homeowners when they returned from their travel after five days; the date and exact cause of Colin’s death have not been determined.
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Colin was a resident of Brussels, where he worked as a conservatory teacher and was working on various recording projects.
Colin spent at least part of his childhood in Virginia before moving with his family to Newport Beach, CA. He later attended Berklee College of Music in Boston before moving with friends to Singapore to write and play jingles.
From Singapore he moved to San Francisco and formed a band called the Apostles, which also included future Train guitarist Jimmy Stafford. That band would form an early iteration of what would become Train after vocalist Pat Monahan joined.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Train enjoyed enormous commercial success, scoring its first Top 20 hit in 1999 with “Meet Virginia,” and, in 2001, the triple-platinum album Drops of Jupiter. Train would reach its hit-making peak in 2009 with “Hey, Soul Sister,” but by that time Colin had left the band: He quit in 2003 due to substance abuse issues.
In a 2017 interview with NBC News, Monahan said, “Charlie is one incredible bass player, but he was in a lot of pain, and the way he was dealing with it was very painful for everyone else around him.”
After leaving Train, Colin collaborated with Matchbox Twenty’s Scott Underwood in a band called Food Pill, and played in subsequent bands called Painbirds and The Side Deal.
In addition to his music career, Colin collected art and was an advocate for unhoused artists.
The original version of this report included an incorrect photo.
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