Charlie Colin, Founder of Rock Band Train, Dies After Freak Accident

Katie Song May 23, 2024, 8:46 am

Charlie Colin, bassist and founding member of Train – the ’90s pop-rock band that is best known for their hits “Drops of Jupiter” and “Hey, Soul Sister” – has died after slipping in the shower. The musician was 58.

His sister confirmed his death to the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The cause of death comes from his mother, according to a TMZ report that shares that he slipped and fell in the shower while house-sitting for a friend in Brussels, Belgium (where he had been living and teaching music at a conservatory). No one had realized Colin died until his friends returned home from their trip on Friday May 17.

Colin grew up in California and Virginia and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He played in a group called Apostles after college with guitarist Jimmy Stafford and singer Rob Hotchkiss until he moved to Singapore for a year to write jingles.

Eventually, he relocated to San Francisco, where Train was formed in the early ’90s with Hotchkiss, Stafford, and singer Pat Monahan. Drummer Scott Underwood was later brought in by Colin, according to an interview with Colin in Berklee’s alumni magazine.

Colin played on the band’s first three records: “1998” (1998), “Drops of Jupiter” (2001), and “My Private Nation” (2003). In 1999, Train had their first top 20 of the Billboard hot 100 with “Meet Virginia” from their first album. They found even more success with their following record, which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart and received two Grammy Awards – for best rock song and best instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalist(s).

Colin left train in 2003, which was revealed to be due to substance abuse according to an NBC interview with Monahan. In 2015, he reunited with Hotchkiss and started a new band called Painbirds. In 2017. he created another band, the Side Deal.

On Wednesday, Train’s official social media pages paid tribute to the bassist.

“When I met Charlie Colin, front left, I fell in love with him. He was the sweetest guy and what a handsome chap. Let’s make a band that’s the only reasonable to do,” the post reads.

“His unique bass playing a beautiful guitar work helped get folks to notice us in SF and beyond. I’ll always have a warm place for him in my heart. I always tried to pull him closer but he had a vision of his own. You’re a legend, Charlie. Go charm the pants off those angels.”