Prodigy star Keith ‘takes his own life’
His band sold 30m records and had a string of No1 albums yet, despite all this success, the singer is thought to have taken his own life...
With his fluorescent punk hairstyle, piercings and manic stare, Keith Flint once admitted that he was every parent’s worst nightmare.
His headbanging, gurning turn in The Prodigy’s Firestarter video earned him a BBC ban after its debut on Top of the Pops in 1996 terrified children.
And his drink and drug-fuelled excess as the band went on to sell 30 million records and headline Glastonbury made his wildman label stick.
But in much the same way he exploded on to the music scene in the 1990s, the tragic news of his apparent suicide aged just 49 caused shockwaves yesterday.
Devastated band co-founder Liam Howlett broke the news, telling fans: “Our brother Keith took his own life over the weekend. I’m shell-shocked, f***ing angry, confused and heartbroken. RIP brother.”
Bandmate Maxim added: “A true pioneer, innovator and legend. He will be for ever missed.”
Our last picture of the troubled star, shows him competing in the 5km Parkrun event in Chelmsford, Essex, on Saturday where he got a 21:22min personal best. Just hours later he was found dead at his £1.5million rural home in nearby Dunmow.
As the band’s frontman, Keith brought rave to a global audience with albums including 1994’s Music For the Jilted Generation and 1997’s Fat of the Land. Their seventh consecutive number one album, No Tourists, was released in November.
Even after finally going clean for a quiet life in the country running a pub, he reportedly kept a jar customers had to put £1 in every time they made a “firestarter” joke as he lit the fire.
But despite his success, Keith’s life was marred by a turbulent childhood and dark thoughts. In a haunting interview in 2013 he said he would one day end his life.
“I’m not saving up for anything,” he said. “I’m cashing it all now. I’ve always had this thing that, when I’m done, I’ll kill myself,” he stated.
“That’s not suicidal – it’s a positive thing. The moment I start s **** ing the bed is when you’ll see me on the front of a bus.”
He did not feature on 2004’s Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned album as drugs took hold.
“I got bang into coke, weed. This made me reclusive, boring and shallow,” he said.
“I’d line up rows of pills and take them until I passed out.” Admitting he thought about killing himself at the time, he added: “But you need a lot of balls. I was a coward.”
Keith’s wife, DJ Mayumi Kai, from whom he was understood to be separated, was believed to be gigging in her native Japan yesterday.
He once said he was “overwhelmed” when he met her and it was around the time of their 2006 wedding he reportedly quit drugs, booze and cigarettes for a quiet life in the country.
Keith bought The Leather Bottle pub in the village of Pleshey, near his home, and ran it until 2017.
He was also a keen motorcyclist and had his own team – Team Traction Control – which won four Isle of Man TT races. But he loved to be jogging, cycling or enjoying the outdoors with Mayumi and their six dogs. “We like to take picnics, driving through the green lanes,” he once confessed. “It’s very boring and very un-rock ’n’ roll to talk about it.”
Jane Addison, who lives nearby, recalled Keith as a friendly animal lover.
“He’d go round fields on his quad and when he wanted [his dogs] to come back he’d shout, ‘Eggs and bacon’.”
And pals at his pub recalled his “larger than life character”.
Les Taylor said of first meeting him: “This guy came in and it was Keith.
“He was only a little fella, about fiveseven, he had a cap covering his hair, I think he had riding boots on. He’d come down on his horse from his house up the next village and said ‘Hello everyone, how the f*** are ya?’” “That was the way his character was, very spicy, very friendly.” The Prodigy’s music influenced many contemporaries, who yesterday paid tribute. Chase and Status said: “Devastated to hear the legend Keith Flint has passed away. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the life-changing music they made and championed.” Chemical Brothers star Ed Simons added: “So sad to hear about Keith, he was always great fun to be around.” TV presenter Gail Porter, who dated Keith in the 90s, simply tweeted the word “heartbroken”. Police went to Keith’s home at 8am yesterday over “concerns for the welfare of a man”.
They said: “A 49-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. The death is not being treated as suspicious.”
Originally a dancer for the group, Keith became singer after doing vocals on rave-rock anthem Firestarter. Its lyrics – including “I’m the firestarter/Twisted firestarter” – were the first he wrote for the band.
“It didn’t really have anything to do with starting fires,” he said in
1996. “It was when you’re in front of 5,000 people and just with the music and a visual performance, you can stir them up into a frenzy and that’s almost like starting a massive fire, or a riot.”
Born in 1969 in Redbridge, East London, he moved to Braintree, Essex, and threw himself into the rave scene.
At 15, Keith was thrown out of school. “I was quite disruptive,” he said. “But when they tested my IQ, I was quite intelligent. Trouble is there’s a dysfunctional side.”
Various jobs followed, including as a roofer, before meeting Howlett in 1989. Keith said: “I was never the brains – that was Liam. But we were a complete package. It was the outlet I was looking for.”
I’d line up pills and take them until I passed out KEITH FLINT ON HIS DRUGS EXCESS