NEW YORK — Charlie Colin, bassist and founding member of the American pop-rock band Train, best known for early hits like “Drops of Jupiter” and “Meet Virginia,” has died. He was 58 years old.
Colin’s sister, Carolyn Stephens, confirmed her brother’s death to the Associated Press on Wednesday. He died after slipping and falling in the shower while house sitting for a friend in Brussels, Belgium, celebrity website TMZ.com reported.
Colin grew up in California and Virginia and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston.
He played in a group called the Apostles after college with guitarist Jimmy Stafford and singer Rob Hotchkiss. The band eventually disbanded and Colin moved to Singapore for a year to write jingles.
Eventually, Colin, Hotchkiss and Stafford moved to San Francisco, where Train formed in the early ’90s with singer Pat Monahan. Colin brought in drummer Scott Underwood to round out the group, according to an interview with Colin and Hotchkiss in Berklee’s alumni magazine.
As a founding member of Train, Colin played on the band’s first three albums, 1998’s self-titled album, 2001’s “Drops of Jupiter” and 2003’s “My Private Nation.” The latter two releases reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart. .
“Meet Virginia”, from Train’s debut album, broke the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, but it was the second album, “Drops of Jupiter”, that confirmed the band’s success.
The eight-times platinum title track “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” – which features Rolling Stones pianist Chuck Leavell and Leonard Cohen string orchestrator Paul Buckmaster, and was written about the death of Monahan’s mother – reached 5th place. in the same chart he also won two Grammys, for best rock song and best instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalist(s).
Colin left Train in 2003 due to substance abuse. “Charlie is an incredible bass player, but he was in a lot of pain, and the way he was dealing with it was very painful for everyone around him,” Monahan told NBC San Diego.
In 2015, he reunited with Hotchkiss to form a new band called Painbirds, alongside Tom Luce.
In 2017, he formed another band, Side Deal, with Stan Frazier of Sugar Ray and Joel and Scott Owen of the PawnShop Kings.
On Wednesday, a tribute to Colin appeared on the band Train’s official Facebook and X social media pages. “When I met Charlie Colin, front left, I fell in love with him. He was the sweetest guy and what a handsome guy. Let’s form a band that is the only reasonable thing to do”, says the text.
“His unique bass playing beautiful guitar work helped get people to notice us in SF and beyond. I will 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 are a legend, Charlie. Go enchant these angels.
Before his death, Colin documented his time in Brussels, writing “Officially my favorite city,” in a March Instagram post.
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