Charlie Colin, a co-founder and former bassist for the popular band Train, died recently after suffering a fall in the bathroom. He was only 58 years old.
Colin was using the bathroom in a friend’s home in Brussels that he was house-sitting for.
Last week, Carolyn Stephens, Colin’s sister, confirmed to The Associated Press that her brother died after slipping and then falling while taking a shower.
The band he was a member of was best known for hit songs such as “Meet Virginia” and “Drops of Jupiter.”
The musician grew up in Southern California and went to college in Boston at the Berklee College of Music. Following graduation, he played in a band known as the Apostles.
Once the band dissolved, he moved to Singapore, where he wrote jingles for a year.
Together with former band members of Apostles — Rob Hotchkiss and Jimmy Stafford — Colin moved to San Francisco, where they met up with singer Pat Monahan to form Train in the early 1990s.
The group was rounded out by Scott Underwood, who served as the band’s drummer.
Colin played on Train’s first three albums, including “Drops of Jupiter,” which was released in 2001, and “My Private Nation,” released in 2003. Those two albums peaked on the Billboard 200 chart at number six.
One of the band’s most popular songs, “Meet Virginia,” was on its debut album and broke into the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 20.
The title track of “Drops of Jupiter” hit platinum eight times. It featured Chuck Leavell, a session pianist for the Rolling Stones, as well as Paul Buckamster, the string orchestrator for Leonard Cohen.
The song was written about the death of Monahan’s mother. In addition to reaching number five on Billboard’s chart, it won two Grammy Awards, including best rock song that year.
In 2003, Colin left the band due to substance abuse issues.
Speaking to NBC San Diego, Monahan said of Colin:
“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.”
A few years after he left Train, Colin and Hotchkiss reunited, forming the band Painbirds with Tom Luce. He formed yet another band called the Side Deal in 2017 with members of Sugar Ray and PawnShop Kings.
Once news of Colin’s death was announced last week, the social media pages for Train posted a tribute to its former bassist that read:
“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 thing to do.
“His unique bass playing and 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.”
