1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Boston lead singer Brad Delp commits suicide

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by rico_the_redneck, Mar 14, 2007.

  1. Hope I'm not DB'ing this since I guess it happened Friday, but I didn't see where he'd died in the first place until just now. I guess the story confirming that the death was a suicide just hit the wires. I'm a pretty big Boston fan and got to meet Delp backstage a few times when they started touring again in the 90s (I was just a tike when their debut album was released in 1976). He was always super nice. RIP Mr. Delp.

    Here's the story from the AP via Yahoo:

    By KATHARINE WEBSTER, Associated Press Writer

    The family of Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, said his death was a suicide. "He was a man who gave all he had to give to everyone around him, whether family, friends, fans or strangers," the family said in a statement relayed by police Wednesday. "He gave as long as he could, as best he could, and he was very tired. We take comfort in knowing that he is now, at last, at peace."

    Delp, 55, died Friday at his Atkinson home.

    Toxicology tests by the state medical examiner's office showed that Delp committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, said Lt. William Baldwin. Police said Delp had sealed himself inside a bathroom with two charcoal grills sometime between 11:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday afternoon, when he was found by fiancee Pamela Sullivan.

    Delp also left two notes taped to a door and letters to his family and Sullivan. Baldwin said police do not know the contents of the letters.

    The family's statement said Sullivan, Delp's children and their mother, Delp's ex-wife Micki Delp, were grateful for the sympathy they had received.

    Delp joined Boston in the mid-1970s and sang two of its biggest hits, "More than a Feeling" and "Long Time."

    He had planned to marry Sullivan this summer during a break in a tour with Boston. A lifelong Beatles fan, Delp also played with the tribute band Beatle Juice.

    Beatle Juice performed a benefit last year to help build a new public library in Atkinson, a small town of about 6,000 residents on the Massachusetts border.

    The family said last week it planned a private funeral followed by a public memorial to be scheduled later.
     
  2. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    Fuck. That sucks.

    Hope he has found some peace. RIP.
     
  3. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    I was no fan of his band, but a very sad event. RIP.

    Now if it were some rockstar I really hated, I'd make a sick joke involving "finish" and "grill"...
     
  4. Claws for Concern

    Claws for Concern Active Member

    RIP. Boston's first two albums are pretty solid.
     
  5. FileNotFound

    FileNotFound Well-Known Member

    Sad, sad, sad. RIP.
     
  6. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    Brad Delp and Richard Jeni on the same weekend. Awful. Johnny Tapia almost got KTFO'd by cocaine, too.
    What a sad weekend.
     
  7. As I guess SportsJournalists.com's biggest Boston fan ;) I would go as far as saying the first three albums ("Third Stage" came out when I was a teen and "Amanda" was a big hit). Delp didn't sing on the fourth album ("Walk On") and I never liked it because it was missing his vocals. It didn't sell well either, presumably because Delp was missing. He and Tom Scholz (the Boston mastermind) did get back together in the mid-90s and have been touring off-and-on. Boston's greatest hits CD has Delp with another singer (forget his name ... the Walk On singer) doing a few new songs.

    Their self-titled debut album was the best-selling debut album of all-time for many years (may still be?) and one of the top-selling albums of all time. It had sold something like 15 million copies last time I checked several years ago.

    Seems like a lot of people are checking out this way lately (famous people, a neighbor, some comedian the other day I'd never heard of). It's really sad. WTF. Like I said, he was the most outgoing, fan-friendly guy when I ran into him. Scholz seemed more like the hermit type and didn't come backstage one night (we saw them back-to-back in Charlotte and Atlanta in 1997).

    Once again, RIP Brad Delp. I'll have to crank up some Foreplay/Long Time in his memory :'(
     
  8. Xsportschick

    Xsportschick Member

    Le bummer :...(
     
  9. CapeCodder

    CapeCodder Member

    Not sure where I heard this, but someone said they had a bunch of stuff recorded, so much that we could be hearing "new" Boston albums for the next few years.
     
  10. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    Rico, I became a Boston fan sort of retroactively when Third Stage came out. Read all the liners, got interested in their folksy style and started listening to their earlier stuff as well.

    His death really is a shame. RIP.
     
  11. That's basically what happened with me too Alley. Got introduced with Third Stage and then went back to Boston and Don't Look Back. Their story is pretty neat ... Scholz working as an engineer at Polaroid during the day while creating his music in a home-made basement studio at night. I found one of the used Rockman amps Scholz developed on eBay (Van Halen and a bunch of other groups used them) and tried to learn to play the electric guitar (those amps are like little walkmans complete with a headphone jack so you can play without bugging people). The first album was just Scholz with all his electronics doing the music and Delp doing vocals from what I remember reading.
     
  12. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    The basement production of Third Stage was such a fascinating read, I'd find myself pulling out the liner even when I wasn't listening to the music.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page