Slipknot bassist Paul Gray found dead in Iowa hotel

Yourcatdead · May 27, 2010

Remembering Paul Gray

Three days after Slipknot bassist Paul Gray was found dead in an Iowa hotel room, those who knew him are still struggling to make sense of everything that's happened. It's not an easy thing to do. Though he wasn't born in Iowa, Gray was still very much a local boy made good, having moved to Des Moines as a child. And as Slipknot's fame grew, he made it a point to remain loyal to the scene — and the city — that gave him his start in music. "It's just been a feeling of complete and utter disbelief, and I think a lot of people are still shell-shocked," Andy Hall, music director at Des Moines' Lazer 103.3, told MTV News on Wednesday (May 26). "Paul was not just a guy on a poster on somebody's wall; he was a son, a brother, a bandmate and a friend. And he was a great human being. ... Des Moines has a very tight-knit music community, and anyone in it will tell you that Paul was one of the most kind and warm-hearted people they've ever known. He was always a man of the people, and he never forgot his roots."

Hall moved to Des Moines 10 years ago, and Gray was one of the first people he became friendly with. He said that even though Slipknot were well on their way to becoming a massively successful metal act, the bassist still remained humble, approachable and downright friendly — to everyone.
"He was always quick with a smile and a hug and a 'How you doing, brother?' But it didn't matter if you were his friend of many years or someone he'd just met; he would be very gracious to everyone," Hall said. "He was kind of an imposing guy, but if you came up to him, took the time to converse with him, you'd have realized what a nice, kind guy he was."

Long before Slipknot hit it big, Gray was an integral part of the Des Moines scene. As a founding member of the group — and the only bassist it every employed — he provided the backbeat at their earliest gigs, at local bars like the Safari Club. And though those shows paled in comparison to the big-budget rippers they'd go on to play, they were just as energetic and impactful. Even in their earliest incarnation, Slipknot possessed a will that was unmatched.

"They were always part of the fabric of the local scene. ... Initially, they were playing clubs and band battles. And from the very start, they believed so intensely in themselves, even when the show was simple and the masks were homemade," said Des Moines Register columnist Kyle Munson, who spent a decade as the paper's music critic. "Here was a band willing to put on a show. They believed in themselves from the beginning, and that was the difference. They would have a power-saw onstage, shooting sparks across the stage. The early songs would have little disco jazz riffs thrown in there with the growls. They were a hybrid from the start. ... No one could foresee how far they'd go, but that belief always made them stand out."

And from those formative gigs, the rock monster the world would come to know as Slipknot was born. To folks like Munson, their success brought an immense amount of civic pride — a pride that's definitely taken a hit in the days since Gray's death. Seems everyone who ever met him, spoke to him or even sat in the back of a rock club, eyes agog, and watched him rip, will miss him.
"He always seemed to be a gentle soul and a peacemaker within the band. That's what I've been hearing from people," Munson said. "He wasn't gregarious like [frontman] Corey [Taylor] or outwardly philosophical like [percussionist] Shawn [Crahan]. He was more introverted. But anyone will tell you about the happiness in his voice, his smile. There was a quiet joviality to him."
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Yes, I will keep posting articles that have something different about them, rather than the same old little paragraph article saying he's dead.

Senior PoopiePants · May 27, 2010

Yourcatdead said:

Wow...

R.I.P.
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Oh no fucking way.

Yourcatdead · May 27, 2010

Well guess we find out now.

911 call: Syringe, pills next to Slipknot bassist
By MELANIE WELTE (AP) – 3 hours ago
DES MOINES, Iowa — The hotel employee who found Slipknot bassist Paul Gray dead in his room told a 911 operator that there was a hypodermic needle next to Gray's bed and there were "all kinds of pills everywhere."

TownePlace Suites maintenance worker Mike Kellow told the operator Monday morning that he found the 38-year-old Gray's body in a corner of his room slumped against a wall.
"There's a hypodermic needle next to the bed here," Kellow said.
The dispatcher asked if Gray was awake.
"Oh God, no. He's all purple," Kellow said.
Kellow told the operator it appeared that Gray had been "gone a while."
Kellow says he checked on Gray after the bassist's mother called the Urbandale, Iowa, hotel because she couldn't reach her son.

The six-minute recording, which was first obtained by Des Moines television station WOI-TV on Wednesday, ends with the dispatcher telling Kellow he was sending a police officer to the hotel.
Keller did not immediately respond to a phone message Thursday seeking comment.
Urbandale police Sgt. Dave Disney said Thursday that everything in the hotel room was collected and documented, but he declined to elaborate on what investigators found.
"What was said on the tape is consistence with some things we found in the room, but that's all I'm going to say," Disney said.
Police have said there was no evidence of foul play or trauma, and an autopsy was inconclusive about how Gray died. Police are awaiting the results of toxicology tests, which could take up to six weeks.
In 2003, Gray acknowledged that he was on drugs when his red Porsche collided with another car that year in Des Moines. No one was seriously injured. Under a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped charges of possession of marijuana, cocaine and syringes.

Media reports at the time noted that court records included a handwritten note from Dr. Joe Takamine that described discussions with Gray that were "very frank and open about his sporadic use of various drugs and of the long periods of abstinence in between."
Gray was one of the founding members of the Des Moines-based band known for its grotesque masks, thrashing sounds and aggressive, dark lyrics.
Gray's wife, Brenna Gray, is pregnant. She and surviving members of the band held a news conference on Tuesday.
She said their unborn daughter will grow up knowing her father for the legacy he left behind.
Slipknot emerged in the mid-1990s, and its 1999 debut album sold about 2 million copies. The band won a Grammy in 2006 for best metal performance for the song "Before I Forget."
Slipknot's last studio album, "All Hope Is Gone," debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 2008, and concert industry trade publication Pollstar ranked Slipknot 18th in its Top 20 Concert Tours list in 2009.
The band has been on a yearlong hiatus.
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Yourcatdead · May 28, 2010

bump

BigOrange2 · May 28, 2010

I figured it had something to do with drugs based upon what I knew about Paul.. I'm interested in what drug is was that killed him specifically... I'm guessing heroin, or considering that the person who found him said he was purple, it sounds like perhaps he mixed several dstrong sedatives in pill form like Aplrazolam, and likely shooting something like heroin, mixed with alcohol.. This can cause your breathing to become very hard and has even killed people from depressed breathing from mixing too many depressants... If it was heroin that mainly killed him I'm going to be pissed.. Because I battled with an IV heroin addiction for years, and now that I finally have it out of my life, it would piss me off if it took the life of one of my favorite musicians as well.. Fucking drugs... Stick with weed

Newblue · May 28, 2010

Whats going on in the Metal/Rock world now?

Dio - Dead
Dimebag - Dead
Paul Gray - Dead
Les Paul - Dead
Peter Steele - Dead

And yet, Bullet for my Valentine are still around.......................

Yourcatdead · May 30, 2010

Tribute video

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vLnWOkR2Xo]YouTube - RiP Paul Gray [/ame]

And this is an event, that everybody on a certain day does something to remember Paul.

Welkom op Facebook | Facebook

BongBassed · May 30, 2010

and now gary coleman!!! fuck, this is a conspiracy i tell u

Yourcatdead · May 30, 2010

BongBassed said:

and now gary coleman!!! fuck, this is a conspiracy i tell u
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This. We must all run to the Amazon!

loooool

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