Charlie Colin, bassist and founding member of the American band Train, died after slipping while taking a shower. He was 58 years old. The musician was in his house in Brussels at the time of the accident. Colin’s sister, Carolyn Stephensconfirmed his death to the Associated Press.
Growing up in California and Virginia, after college and before founding Train, Colin had played in a band called Apostles along with guitarist Jimmy Stafford and singer Rob Hotchkiss. After a period spent in Singapore, all three moved to San Francisco, where in the early 1990s they formed Train together with singer Pat Monahan. To complete the group Colin suggested involving drummer Scott Underwood.
As a founding member of Train, Colin played on the band’s first three self-titled albums Train of 1998, Drops of Jupiter of 2001 and My Private Nation in 2003. The last two albums peaked at number 6 on the Billboard 200 chart. Meet Virginiathe song from their debut album, entered the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, but it was the second album, Drops of Jupiter, to consecrate the success of the band. The title track Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me), eight times platinum, it featured the pianist who collaborated with the Rolling Stones Chuck Leavell and Leonard Cohen’s string orchestrator, Paul Buckmaster. The song, written about the death of Monahan’s mother, peaked at No. 5 and won two Grammys as best rock song and best arrangement.
Colin left Train in 2003 due to substance abuse problems: “Charlie is an incredible bass player but he was in a lot of pain, and the way he was dealing with his addiction was very painful for everyone else around him,” he said Monahan at NBC San Diego.
In 2015, Colin reunited with Hotchkiss to form a new band called Painbirds, along with Tom Luce. In 2017, he founded another band, i Side Dealwith Stan Frazier of Sugar Ray and Joel and Scott Owen of PawnShop Kings.
On Wednesday, a tribute to Colin was posted on Train’s official social media pages: “When we met Charlie Colin, front left, I fell in love with him. He was the sweetest guy and what a nice guy,” it read Moreover. Before his death, Colin had documented his stay in Brussels, writing: “Officially my favorite city” in an Instagram post in March.
