Train breaks silence after co-founder Charlie Colin’s sudden death

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Charlie Colin, a founding member of the rock band Train, has died at the age of 58.

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The band’s original bassist slipped and fell in the shower while house-sitting for friends in Belgium, Colin’s mom confirmed to TMZ.

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Colin’s mother told the outlet that no one found her son until they returned from their vacation. According to his mom, he’d moved to Brussels to teach a music master class at a conservatory, and was also working on music for a film.

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His sister also confirmed the news to Variety.

Colin was one of the original members of Train alongside frontman Pat Monahan, Rob Hotchkiss, Jimmy Stafford and Scott Underwood. He played on several of the group’s biggest hits, including Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me), Meet Virginia, and Hey, Soul Sister, and appeared on the band’s first three albums, 1999’s eponymous debut, 2001’s Drops of Jupiter and 2003’s My Private Nation. 

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In an Instagram post, Train remembered Colin for his his “unique bass playing and beautiful guitar work” and credited his musicianship with helping the band gain a following when they were first starting out.

“When I met Charlie Colin, front left, I fell in love with him,” wrote the band, captioning a picture of Train in its early days. “He was THE sweetest guy and what a handsome chap. Let’s make a band that’s the only reasonable thing to do. His unique bass playing and beautiful guitar work helped get folks to notice us in (San Francisco) 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.”

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According to Variety, Colin left the group in 2003 after battling substance abuse.

In the years since, the Newport Beach native went on to play with other bands, including Slipknot, Puddle of Mudd, Painbirds and the Side Deal, which featured Sugar Ray’s Stan Frazier and the PawnShop Kings’ Joel and Scott Owen.

In a 2023 podcast, Colin said the band’s meteoric rise to fame in the early 2000s led to his departure.

“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. “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.”

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In an interview with the Power Players with Dan Clark podcast, Colin said that in their early years he and Monahan had an easygoing relationship.

“I usually give him a phrase or two of an idea, and then he would take it and work on it,” he said. “For about eight years, Pat and I were on fire. We were fantastic writing partners.”

Colin said he left the band “because my ego and my identity were all at stake and I was thinking about that too much … I achieved the goals I thought I was supposed to attain, but I didn’t have much of a life.” 

But in a 2017 interview, Monahan said he made the group choose between himself and Colin after the musician’s substance-abuse issues mounted.

“Charlie is one incredible bass player, but he was in a lot of pain, and the way he was dealing with it was very painful for everyone else around him,” Monahan told NBC San Diego. “They weren’t happy about the choice. They were very clear that I put them in a very tough position.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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