Music fans were shocked on Monday morning when the news broke that Keith Flint, who fronted the 1990s electronic music act The Prodigy, was found dead at the age of 49. This was further confirmed not long afterwards on the band’s Instagram page, as Flint’s bandmate — Liam Howlett — noted that the singer died in an apparent suicide at some point during the weekend.
“The news is true, I can’t believe I’m saying this but our brother Keith took his own life over the weekend,” said Howlett. “I’m shell shocked, f***in angry, confused and heart broken.”
The Prodigy similarly shared a Twitter post confirming Flint’s passing, but made no mention of his apparent cause of death.
As reported by The Daily Mail , the news of Flint’s death had also come as a shock to his neighbors in Essex, who regularly spotted him riding his horse, running, or cycling. They saw him as a “friendly” person who loved animals.
“I don’t know how many dogs he had, maybe eight-ish dogs, and he’d go round the fields on his quad, and when he wanted them to come back to him he’d shout “eggs and bacon”… He had lots of birds, canaries… in an aviary,” neighbor Jane Addison told The Daily Mail .
Keith Flint, 1969-2019: the twisted face of rave, the beating heart of The Prodigy https://t.co/m80LXPGo97 pic.twitter.com/VmjPaIQalN
— NME (@NME) March 4, 2019
Another neighbor, who was not identified by the outlet, explained that Flint had “seemed alright” after getting back from The Prodigy’s recent tour. The neighbor also recalled seeing the singer running everyday with someone who appeared to be his trainer. Flint allegedly looked “very fit” during these daily workouts.
As further cited by The Daily Mail , a third neighbor focused on how Flint was a pleasant and polite person who was “very well spoken” to the community, despite his outward appearance as a rock musician “with rings in his nose.”
According to a separate report from Forbes , Keith Flint’s death came shortly after The Prodigy had returned to the United Kingdom after a tour of Australia. The band — which reached its peak success in the 1990s with songs such as “Breathe” and “Firestarter” — was scheduled to perform in Colombia and Austria in April. They also had a tour of the United States scheduled to kick off in May. As further noted, The Prodigy also had multiple scheduled dates in the summer at the time of their frontman’s passing.
As of this writing, officials have yet to confirm Flint’s exact cause of death. Per Forbes , the musician was found dead by paramedics on Monday morning, after law enforcement officials responded to “concerns for his welfare.” Police are currently not treating his death as being of a suspicious nature.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. For readers outside the U.S., visit Suicide.org or Befrienders Worldwide for international resources you can use to find help.
