'00s Musicians Who Died In Bizarre Ways

The 2000s, meaning the first decade of the 21st century, reflected a kind of collective new millennium discomfort while musicians also tried to adapt forms of the past into something different and unique. It was the dying days of a monoculture, and what constituted popular music continued to fracture in many exciting and different directions. While the 2000s music industry was certainly messed up, it also fostered hip-hop's growth to varied and creative heights, R&B and pop converging, and post-grunge taking over rock radio with hard and moody metal and rap-rock. Even soft rock made a resurgence, thanks in large part to the earnest belters on ultra-popular reality TV singing competitions, while theatrical bands embraced a showiness not seen since the dramatic 1970s.

It was a crowded decade on the charts and in record store bins, although those increasingly fell away in favor of digital downloads and music streaming services. Another aspect of the 2000s music scene that involves fading away, and in a much more tragic sense: The musicians who made all that stuff. A number of pop and rock stars whose careers peaked and helped define the early 21st century died before their time, and suddenly, and often amidst bizarre and harrowing circumstances. Here are the major musicians of the 2000s who died in a very strange manner.

Staind formed in 1995 with Jon Wysocki on the drums, but it would take a few years for the band to break through. Its sensitive, sludgy, and feedback-drenched power ballads were all over the radio in the first half of the 2000s, particularly the No. 1 rock hits "So Far Away," "It's Been Awhile," and "Right Here."

Wysocki was also a member of Lydia's Castle, and on May 18, bandmate Shawna Lynn Hornbeck announced on Facebook that the drummer had checked into an intensive care unit for what was a vaguely reported internal health issue. "He has been having issues with his liver that requires him to be under the attention of medical professionals," Hornbeck wrote. "While he has been struggling, there are signs that he is recovering slowly." Later that day, Lydia's Castle announced that the drummer had died. "At 8:02pm, Jon Wysocki passed away surrounded by family and friends that loved him dearly," the band wrote on Instagram (via Variety). Wysocki was 53 years old; the exact nature of his liver issues was never publicly disclosed, nor the direct cause of death.

The Underground Kingz, more commonly known as UGK, helped make Southern gangsta rap a famous and viable sub-genre in the 1990s. Consisting of rappers Pimp C and Bun B, the duo's 2001 album "Dirty Money" generated a string of hits, but UGK's rise was interrupted by Pimp C going to prison for three years. The pair is probably best known for its 2007 hip-hop classic "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)," which featured Outkast and was named by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 greatest songs ever recorded.

One of Pimp C's best-known works was "Sippin' on Some Syrup," a celebration of getting intoxicated on cocktails like lean, made with prescription cough syrup in which the active ingredients are the anti-allergy substance promethazine and codeine, an opioid painkiller. After he missed his checkout time at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood one afternoon in December 2007, staff discovered the rapper (born with the name Chad Butler) dead in the bed. When the Los Angeles County coroner's office delivered its autopsy in February 2008, it determined that Pimp C had died from the effects of consuming too much promethazine and codeine. 

In a way, he overdosed on the prescription cough syrup, but that substance more than likely slowed down his breathing to a level too shallow to maintain, particularly when accounting for the rapper's sleep apnea that could cause him to stop breathing while sleeping. Butler was 33 years old.

Smooth, low-key, and radio-friendly grown-up pop rock by bands like Train began to find an audience in the late 1990s and 2000s. Bassist Charlie Colin was part of the band from its San Francisco beginnings, and he added jazzy low notes to all of its initial hits, including "Meet Virginia," "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)," and "Calling All Angels."

After helping Train become one of the biggest soft rock bands of all time, Colin parted ways with the group in 2003 because of drug abuse issues but later played bass for other significant but very un-Train 2000s bands like Puddle of Mudd and Slipknot and became the musical director for the Newport Beach Film Festival. Colin decamped to Brussels, Belgium, to teach at a music conservatory, and in 2024, he housesat for a friend there. When the occupant returned to the house, they found the drummer dead in the shower, having apparently fallen and suffered a fatal injury in the process. He'd died sometime a few days earlier, as no one had made contact with Colin until the residents of the home came back and found the musician deceased. He was 58 years old.

The tangled life of Kid Rock first went mainstream and very public in the very late 1990s and throughout the early 2000s. Combining elements of country music with '80s-style hard rock and hip-hop, Kid Rock was assisted in popularizing his unique sound by the Twisted Brown Trucker Band. Among the standout performers in the crew in those days was Kid Rock's de facto live show sidekick: Joe C., a ferocious and funny rapper with great verbal dexterity.

Shortly after Joe C. was born, under the name Joe Calleja, he was diagnosed with Celiac disease, a chronic condition he managed throughout his lifetime. Conventionally considered a digestive problem, sufferers can manage painful gastrointestinal problems by avoiding the consumption of gluten. However, it can also manifest as a serious autoimmune condition with a host of side effects. Joe C. sustained regular intestinal pain, saw his growth stopped at 3 feet, 9 inches, and kidney dialysis treatments and 65 pills were both part of his daily health upkeep regimen, per ABC News. By late 2000, he'd had to cut down on touring to focus on his health, and on November 16 of that year, complications of Celiac disease killed Joe C. in his sleep. He was 26.

Australian-born Michael Lee arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s to attend college and play tennis, only to switch to music. His Atlanta cover band Film earned some attention from record labels, but only for Lee — going under the stage name of Michael Johns — as a potential solo act, and for his songwriting. His album went unreleased when Maverick Records shuttered, leaving Johns free to audition for "American Idol" in 2008. He finished eighth in the talent show's seventh season, and his album "Hold Back My Heart" performed moderately well.

On August 1, 2014, Johns died at the age of 35. Initially, the cause was reported as a blood clot that traveled into one of the singer's vital organs after developing during a recovery from a simple sprained ankle. But then California's Orange County Coroner's Office in California conducted an autopsy and revealed that there wasn't a blood clot involved at all. Johns suffered from both a dangerously enlarged heart and a fatty liver, which can sometimes, but not always, be the result of excessive drinking over the course of many years. Johns had ingested a lot of alcohol in the hours before he died, and a close friend blamed his death on that binge. Regardless, neither organ issue had been diagnosed while the musician was still alive.

As a preternaturally vocally gifted teenager in the 1990s, Aaliyah showed off her impressive pipes and hip-hop flair. In the 2000s, she became a superstar. "Try Again," a single from the soundtrack of Aaliyah's movie, "Romeo Must Die," went to No. 1 on the pop chart. By the end of 2001, she'd appear near the top of the pop and R&B charts many more times, with the likes of "Rock the Boat," "More Than a Woman," and "We Need a Resolution."

In August 2001, Aaliyah and a video production crew headed to Abaco, an island in the Bahamas, to shoot a clip for "Rock the Boat." Before the flight from Miami, travel organizers were warned to not overload the small planes being used with too much cargo, like video production equipment. After the shoot wrapped, authorities eschewed the services of two well-established charter plane companies in favor of an upstart called Blackhawk, operated by an owner who had once pleaded guilty to charges of bankruptcy fraud over his previous charter service. The pilot assigned to Aaliyah's flight hadn't received the necessary safety certification to fly the twin-engine Cessna 402B used, and bogged down with heavy gear and many passengers, it crashed just after clearing the runway on Abaco. The wings immediately shattered, and upon violent impact, the engine and landing gear became separated from the body of the aircraft. Aaliyah, 22 years old, was one of nine people who died in the accident. 

In 1996, a group of Nashville musicians unhappy with their other bands united to create Saliva, a hard-charging, loud, and heavy nu-metal band. Leading the charge was guitarist Wayne Swinny, who remained the only original member of the band through its rise and fall, particularly during its numerous successes in the 2000s. Saliva soundtracked an era for rock radio with hits like "Your Disease," "Click Click Boom," "Always," "Rest in Pieces," and "Survival of the Sickest."

On March 20, 2023, Swinny performed with Saliva at its scheduled tour stop in Nashville. In the hours after the gig, Swinny sustained a medical episode which required emergency hospitalization. It was diagnosed as a spontaneous brain hemorrhage, and he was held in a local hospital's intensive care unit while the rest of Saliva moved on to its next show with a substitute guitarist. Hours after announcing on its social media channels that Swinny wouldn't be with the band for that night's show, Saliva shared the news that Swinny had died while under medical supervision. The guitarist was 59 years old.

A late-breaking entry in the often cartoonish and bizarre history of heavy metal music, Deftones emerged from Sacramento in the mid-1990s, blending screaming, crooning, down-tunings, and anthemic riffs. By the time its acclaimed and quickly selling third full-length album "White Pony" hit stores in the summer of 2000, bolstered by the hit singles "Change (in the House of Flies) and "Back to School (Mini Maggit)," Deftones' sound relied heavily on a rumbling and menacing low end, provided by bassist Chi Cheng.

After playing on five albums by the band in which he'd been a member for 20 years, Cheng was replaced in Deftones when he entered a pervasive comatose state. In November 2008, he was riding in a car that was involved in a crash in Santa Clara, California. The musician wasn't wearing a seatbelt and he was thrown from the vehicle. Immediately sent into a coma, paralyzed, and surviving with the aid of machinery, Cheng showed signs of recovery two years later, such as the ability to make small movements with his hands and legs. In 2012, he was discharged for in-home recovery but in 2013, Cheng succumbed to the profound injuries sustained five years earlier and he died at age 42.

As an act that aggressively embraced the darkest, most craven, and most twisted aspects of the human psyche and experience, Slipknot often went too far. Joey Jordison formed the band in Iowa, giving the group its name and providing its signature rapid-fire and thunderous drumming, all while wearing ghastly masks and stage costumes. Slipknot struck it big in 2000 with a double-platinum debut album and a chart-topping follow-up, "Iowa."

In 2013, Slipknot announced that Jordison was no longer part of the band, with The Guardian citing  "personal reasons." The next year, Jordison said that he'd actually been abruptly fired from the band as he could no longer drum the way he liked due to a loss of motor functions associated with the disease transverse myelitis. A rare form of multiple sclerosis, Jordison couldn't play music for a time, nor could he walk, until he enrolled in an aggressive physical therapy program. In July 2021, Jordison died in his sleep from complications of his condition; he was 46.

An architect of hip-hop and pop music of the new millennium era, Static Major often worked behind the scenes as a producer and songwriter. He helped write "Rock the Boat," "More Than a Woman," and "Try Again" for Aaliyah," "On the Hotline" for Pretty Ricky," and "Lollipop" for Lil Wayne. The latter hit No. 1 in 2008 and won Static Major a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song. On that tune, the musician also made a rare credited and on-record appearance.

In February 2008, the musician born Stephen Garrett sought medical treatment at Baptist Hospital East in Louisville, Kentucky, the city where he grew up. Doctors explained that his suite of symptoms was caused by myasthenia gravis, a scarcely diagnosed autoimmune disease characterized by antibodies breaking down nerve and muscle communication pathways, leading to the destruction of skeletal and voluntary muscles. It's a chronic condition that in men, usually appears over the age of 50; Static Major wouldn't survive his hospital visit. 

During immediate treatments, a surgeon placed a catheter into the rapper's neck, and he immediately reported severe pain, not at the point of insertion but in what felt like his internal organs. An x-ray indicated an improperly placed line, and when a nurse removed the catheter, Garrett lost consciousness. Doctors attempted to save the musician but were unsuccessful; Static Major died at the age of 33.

Equal parts emo, goth, alternative, and progressive rock, My Chemical Romance was one of the most adored and important rock bands of the 2000s. At the height of its popularity in 2004 with the triple-platinum "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge," Bob Bryar stepped in for Matt Pelissier on the drums, and his work can be heard all over big My Chemical Romance records like "The Black Parade" and "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys." Bryar left the group in 2010, and music entirely in 2014 to focus on charity and real estate work.

Bryar's last contact with friends or family came on November 4, 2024. His body was discovered in his home in Bedford County, Tennessee, more than three weeks later, by a member of a local animal control office. According to the Bedford County Medical Examiner's report, because Bryar had been dead for a long period by the time his body was found, decomposition was well underway. The remains were discovered near three tanks of nitrous oxide with ingestion machinery attached. The coroner couldn't say for sure if an overdose of nitrous oxide played a role in the musician's death, because the results of the autopsy itself were inconclusive and incomplete — the body had deteriorated to a point where precise testing was impossible.

Angie Stone had been kicking around in the fringes of the music industry for more than 20 years before she enjoyed a commercial and critical breakthrough in the 2000s. In the 1970s, she joined a funk-rap trio called The Sequence, which scored a few minor hits on the R&B chart in the early 1980s. After embracing the neo-soul movement, Stone routinely ran up the R&B chart in the 2000s with smashes like "No More Rain (In This Cloud)," "Brotha," and "Wish I Didn't Miss You" and earned three Grammy Award nominations in the process.

Following a Mardi Gras show in Mobile, Alabama, on February 28, 2025, Stone's entourage joined the list of bands that were in tragic accidents while touring. Stone and nine others in her party loaded into a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van to return the singer to Atlanta. In the early morning hours of March 1, the driver of the van had lost control on Interstate 65, five miles outside of Montgomery, Alabama. The van crashed and turned over onto its side, and as it languished on the road, the driver of a semi-truck didn't see it and struck the van. Eight people on board were rushed to Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery to treat non-life-threatening injuries suffered as the result of one or both vehicle crashes. The only fatality in the accident was Angie Stone, who was pronounced dead at the scene at the age of 63.