3 Doors Down Guitarist Dies at 38

Matt Roberts was found dead in a Wisconsin hotel; drug overdose is suspected
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 21, 2016 11:38 AM CDT
3 Doors Down Guitarist Dies at 38
This May 17, 2008 file photo shows, from left, Todd Harrell, Brad Arnold, and Matt Roberts, of 3 Doors Down performing during a concert before the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, NC.   (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

Matt Roberts, the lead guitarist for 3 Doors Down from the group's founding in 1996 until he left for health reasons in 2012, was found dead Saturday in a Wisconsin hotel, reports Rolling Stone. He was 38. "I was wakened at 8:50 this morning by some detectives beating on my door. It's always scary as a parent, they were in suits and that's when they told me. They asked me if Matt Roberts was your son, I said yes, and they said 'we have bad news to tell you, Matt deceased last night,'" dad Darrell Roberts tells CNN. The younger Roberts had been rehearsing for a veterans fundraiser; hours after the Robertses returned to the hotel police were called on a reports of a man asleep or passed out in the hallway. Matt Roberts was pronounced dead shortly after.

An autopsy is planned to confirm a cause of death. Darrell Roberts says his son "had prescription drug addiction. He suffered greatly from anxiety. It's crazy as a performer; he never liked crowds or liked places he didn't know about as a baby, as a child, and this was his way of dealing with it and me and him talked about it often." The father says he thought his son was OK. "I thought he had beaten it all," he says. (More 3 Doors Down stories.)

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