Train's Charlie Colin Found Dead in Shower

Friends found Colin five days ago after returning from a trip.

By Ashley Turner

Charlie Colin, a founding member of the band Train, has tragically died at the age of 58. Colin suffered a fatal slip and fall while taking a shower at a friend's residence in Brussels, Belgium, where he was house-sitting.

Although there is little information about the circumstances surrounding Colin's death, sources told TMZ that no one found him until his friends returned home from a trip five days ago. His sister confirmed his death to Variety. He had apparently relocated to Brussels, Belgium, and was teaching music master classes at a conservatory while working at a studio and making music for a film, according to his mother, the outlet said.

Colin was an original member of Train, along with lead singer Pat Monahan, Rob Hotchkiss, Scott Underwood, and Jimmy Stafford. The bassist contributed to the band's first three albums: 1999's self-titled debut, 2001's "Drops of Jupiter" and "My Private Nation." In 2001, they broke through with their hit "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)," which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).

Originally hailing from Newport Beach, California, the musician and fellow Train founding member Hotchkiss met when Colin was in the seventh grade. Together, they went on to pursue their music education at Berklee School of Music, where Colin studied jazz composition guitar. Following a move to Los Angeles, Hotchkiss invited Colin to join one of his bands, which had been signed to PolyGram Records.

A group that consisted of Colin, Hotchkiss, and Stafford formed Apostles before splitting up. After traveling around the world and returning to the U.S., Colin joined the newly formed Train around 1996. After touring the world with Train, he enjoyed mainstream success before quitting the band in 2003 due to substance abuse.

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"There was a lot of things that led to me leaving, but it really escalated into it," Colin said in an interview with Delphine's Circle in 2023. "We never took a break. We drove our tour bus into the parking lot of the recording studio for our second and third record. In Philadelphia, we made our one-and-a-half record… We just never stopped. It's kind of one those things where you feel like this is too good to be true. Most bands have a lifespan of a few years."

In the years that have followed, Colin has played as a member of hard rock bands, including Slipknot and Puddle of Mudd, and reunited with Hotchkiss in 2015 to form the band Painbirds with Tom Luce. Colin formed the Side Deal with Joel and Scott Owen of the Pawnshop Kings and Sugar Ray's Stan Frazier in 2017. According to his social media profiles, he was the musical director of the Newport Beach Film Festival at the time of his passing.

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