Succesful heavy metal singer Kevin DuBrow joined Quiet Riot when Randy Rhoads and Kelly Garni wanted him as a member. The band’s most successful era included Kevin DuBrow, Carlos Cavazo, Rudy Sarzo, and Frankie Banali. Quiet Riot gained great success with the ‘Metal Health‘ album released in 1983. The album became the first top metal album on the Billboard 200. In 1983, the band’s cover of the song ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ from Slade reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and provided ‘Metal Health’ to become a hit.
While Quiet Riot was continuing their recording and touring despite several line-up changes, in November 2007, Kevin DuBrow’s sudden death shocked everyone. When DuBrow’s friends could not be able to contact him for a week, they became suspicious that something was wrong. After DuBrow did not appear at Glenn Hughes’ Thanksgiving dinner, Hughes wanted someone to control him. He was found dead in his home because of an overdose mixing cocaine, painkillers, and alcohol. As one of his close friends, Hughes mentioned a tragic detail about DuBrow shared with him before his death.
What Was The Sad Detail In Kevin DuBrow’s Death?
As The Highway Star shared, Glenn Hughes mentioned in his statement after the death of Kevin DuBrow that there was a genuine friendship between him and Kevin. Hughes constantly contacted him on the phone and invited him to his home. As Hughes mentioned, DuBrow respected him for stopping using drugs, and he did not take them while going to Hughes’ home. DuBrow said that he wanted to have a similar change in his life as Hughes did in a conversation before his death. Hughes was very content to hear this goal, as he mentioned in the statement.
Glenn Hughes said in his words:
“Kevin and I were brothers. We spoke daily, and I mean on the phone, not e-mail. The Kevin that I knew was a beautiful human being. He was kind, giving, and nurturing. And generous. He would stay at my L.A. home when he was in town. I never saw Kevin loaded. He respected my sobriety.
He always spoke how about the change in my lifestyle and how he also wanted to change his. The last conversation I had with him ten days ago was about this subject; he said he had to make some life changes. I was so happy and elated to hear this.”
However, Hughes and his wife Gabi felt strangeness when DuBrow did not join the Thanksgiving dinner they hosted. Thereupon, they decided to ask DuBrow’s ex-girlfriend Lark Williams whether she knew a health officer who could control DuBrow, as he stated. According to Hughes, it was a shocking moment when DuBrow was found dead in his home. As he shared, before his death, they both planned to go to Hawaii to take some rest. Hughes finished his words by saying that he would always miss his friend.
Glenn Hughes continued in the statement:
“Gabi and I spoke to him last on Friday, November 16. He wanted to know if I could pick him up at LAX. On the 23rd, the day of a party at my house. Then there was nothing, no communication. Zero. Come Thanksgiving, I knew something was strange. At the house, Kevin’s room was prepared as always, with his fave candies next to the bed. He always requests them when he stays. I thought he was going to come jumping through the door any minute and demand to play the winner of the pool game between Chad Smith and me.
As the party ended, Gabi and I spoke of his absence. She was very upset. All along, I felt something seriously wrong. Come Sunday morning, I couldn’t take it anymore and called Lark Williams, Kev’s ex-girlfriend. She was in San Francisco. I asked her if she knew a paramedic who could go over to Kev’s house and investigate. Dana, the medic, got in the house only to find my sweet brother at peace.
I am completely shellshocked. We were planning to go to Hawaii for some relaxation in the New Year. For those of you that didn’t know him, he was a true, true friend. I’m going to miss our dinners at the Palm in Beverly Hills. I’m going to miss his loud voice bellowing through my house. I’m going to miss those oh-so-corny jokes. We all will miss him.”
As Glenn Hughes mentioned in his statement, Kevin DuBrow had plans to change his lifestyle before his death. DuBrow was inspired by Hughes’ making fundamental changes in his life, and he wanted to do the same thing. However, he passed away, leaving a lot of loving people behind without being able to realize these changes.
