Late country singer Luke Bell died from fentanyl poisoning, according to an autopsy report released three weeks after he was found dead inside a vehicle in Tucson, Arizona.
And in a heartbreaking update, his cause of death was ruled as an accidental overdose.
Bell, 32, had been missing for several days before an individual discovered him unresponsive in a parked car on August 26. In 2016, singer Prince had a similar cause of death, ultimately passing away from fentanyl poisoning.
Bell had long struggled with bipolar disorder, a condition he spoke about openly.
“Each day is different and presents new challenges. The trouble with bipolar is not knowing which personality is going to show up for the day,” he wrote in a Facebook post weeks before his disappearance.
Bell’s friend Matt Kinman recalled his friendship with the country singer in an interview with Saving Country Music.
“One time I picked him up in Atlanta after a lady called and said, ‘Come get your friend,'” Kinman recalled. “I don’t even know if he remembered his own name after [some guys] whipped up on him.”
“Everyone says, ‘I wish I could have helped him.’ Well, where were you when he was needing you?”
Bell gained fame for his song, Where Ya Been. In the song, he sings, “Where ya been?/ Hey mister in the mirror, where’s my friend?”
On November 7, Bell’s estate released The King Is Back, a 28-track posthumous album of unheard songs.
His mother, Carol Bell, and Buchanan led the project, with help from Luke’s sister, Jane Bell, and family friend Tiffany Buchanan.
Kristina Murray, a country artist who met Bell at Santa’s Pub in Nashville, praised his music’s depth.
“One thing about Luke’s writing is that a lot of times it’s almost predictive,” Murray, 42, said. “It’s almost like he knew himself and could write about himself better than he could articulate or take care of himself.”
The album’s title track captures Bell’s highs, according to Carol Bell.
“When Luke felt like the king, he felt like the king,” she said. “Luke’s bandwidth for human emotions was a lot broader than some of ours. He was often either really high or really low. The song is about the upside, but people can only feel that kind of joy if they feel an equal amount of sorrow. I love that song because it’s Luke at his happiest and his best.”
All proceeds from the album will support the Luke Bell Memorial Affordable Counseling Program, a nonprofit started by the Bell family to provide mental health support in Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin.
Bell went missing on August 20, 2022, after his friend left briefly to get food.
He was found nine days later, dead inside a vehicle on August 29, not far from where he was last seen. He was 32 years old.
If in the United States, you can dial the 24/7 Substance Abuse hotline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or text your zip code to HELP4U (435748).
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source the-express.com ’
