Photo: Lionel Richie & Doug Kiker | By Hannah Dailey, Billboard | American Idol contestant Doug Kiker has died at age 32. The singer’s sister, Angela Evans, shared the news with a Facebook post on Wednesday, writing, “It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce the passing of my brother Douglas Kiker.”
“He was sooo loved and will be missed by so many!” she continued. “[You’re] singing with the Angel’s now Bubba Please pray for our family as we go [through] this very difficult time.”
Donna Kiker Carrillos-Ramirez, another family member, also posted about Doug’s death on Facebook. “Today I got the call that no one wants to get,” she wrote. “We lost an amazing person today. He had the biggest smile and knew how to make you laugh.”
She added, “Douglas Kiker you will forever be missed. Fly high. Say hey to grandma.”
Neither post shared Doug’s cause of death.
The Mobile, Alabama, singer competed on season 18 of American Idol in 2020, where he earned the nickname “The Singing Garbage Man” thanks to his day job as a sanitation worker. His audition moved then-judge Katy Perry to tears, with Doug performing Rascal Flatts’ “Bless the Broken Road.” Though he was eliminated the following round after singing Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Doug was later invited back to virtually perform “Bless the Broken Road” again with the country trio.
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Go here to read this very sad “anti-Cinderella” story:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/doug-kiker-american-idol-contestant-known-as-the-singing-garbage-man-dies-at-32/
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Douglas Kiker reportedly looked so unwell before his death that a passerby called 911 to report it
By Christie D’Zurilla, LA Times
Douglas Kiker, the “Singing Garbage Man” of “American Idol” Season 18, reportedly looked bad enough before he was hospitalized that a pedestrian who passed him on the street decided to call 911.
Kiker died March 10 at Colorado’s Denver Health Medical Center, a representative of the Denver Medical Examiner’s office told The Times on Friday in an email. He had been transported there March 5 by ambulance from a few blocks east of City Center Park [probably Civic Center Park].
Before Kiker was hospitalized, he appeared to be experiencing an overdose, the caller said, according to TMZ. Kiker, unofficially, suffered a drug-induced heart attack, sources outside of law enforcement told the website.
But “the cause and manner of death are pending investigation,” authorities said Friday.
The Mobile, Ala., man, who earned his nickname singing while hanging off of his day-job trash truck, auditioned for “American Idol” Season 18, charming the judges with his unaffected nature and raw talent. He earned his ticket to Hollywood but was dismissed, as so many are, during the first Hollywood round.
Even so, he returned to the competition for the finale episode, doing a virtual performance of his audition song, “Bless the Broken Road,” with Rascal Flatts, the group that turned the tune first recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band into a hit in 2005. By that time, the world was in COVID-19 lockdown and the televised performance saw the singers, judges and host each in his or her own Zoom-style box, far apart even as Kiker and the band were singing together.
“Wow y’all! I can’t believe I actually got to sing with Rascal Flatts,” Kiker wrote on YouTube in May 2020. “So much has happened since my first audition y’all. I am working on putting together an album!”
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https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/douglas-kiker-reportedly-looked-unwell-191249906.html
[The GoFundMe account has since been stopped as it reached its goal.]* * * * *
OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS
Warning Signs of Suicide – National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or if you want to discuss, call the old numbers at 800-273-TALK or 800-273-8255 for English and 888-628-9454 for Spanish. Learn the signs of someone who may be contemplating suicide.
If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com
March 2025
18: Bedros Kirkorov, 92, Bulgarian-Russian singer.
17: AnNa R., 55, German singer (Rosenstolz, Gleis 8); Peter Farrelly, 76, Northern Irish musician (Fruupp); Mankombu Gopalakrishnan, 77, Indian lyricist, heart attack; Aurelio Martínez, 55, Honduran musician and politician, plane crash.
16: Dandy Bestia, 72, Italian guitarist (Skiantos); Jean Mongrédien, 92, French musicologist; Rob de Nijs, 82, Dutch singer and actor (Hamelen), complications from Parkinson’s disease; Jesse Colin Young, 83, American singer (The Youngbloods) and songwriter (“Darkness, Darkness”).
14: Bruno Romani, 65, Italian saxophonist.
13: Sofia Gubaidulina, 93, Russian composer (Offertorium, The Canticle of the Sun, Concerto for violin, cello and bayan), cancer; Mark Holder, 52, American blues musician (Black Diamond Heavies); Yallunder, 30, South African singer.
12: Michel Arrignon, 76, French clarinetist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2025
Photo: Lionel Richie & Doug Kiker on American Idol
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=665260775192437&set=a.665260758525772