Members of electronic-punk mavens the Prodigy—known for brash, hallucinatory tracks like their 1996 hit “Firestarter”—took to social media Wednesday (March 4) to remember their late frontman, Keith Flint. Flint died seven years ago today, on March 4, 2019. He was 49 years old.
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“7 YEARS ON ,, ALWAYS WITH US ON EVERY STAGE & ON EVERY DROP… MISS U EVERY DAY BROTHER ,,, RAISE THE ROOF !” read a post on the band’s official Instagram page, featuring a picture of the mohawked vocalist punching the air onstage.
Keith Flint’s Winding Road to Stardom
Born Sept. 17, 1969 in East London, United Kingdom, Keith Flint’s childhood was not a happy one. Described by the BBC as “a bright boy with dyslexia”, he often fought with his parents and disrupted his classes, leading to his expulsion from school at age 15.
Taking a job as a roofer in Essex, Flint immersed himself in the “acid house” scene of the late ’80s, meeting Prodigy founder and leader Liam Howlett at a local rave club.
“I loved his music and boom, I was in,” Flint said in a 2015 interview. He added, “As a kid, I was always fighting to be who I was. Then suddenly, I no longer had to fight. I just was.”
The pair brought aboard keyboardist Leeroy Thornhill and MC Maxim Reality, and the Prodigy was born. For the first two albums, Flint was a dancer. He made his vocal debut on “Firestarter”, the lead single from the band’s third album, The Fat of the Land (1997).
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With his spiky blonde mohawk and piercings aplenty, Flint had ignited something on “Firestarter.” The song spent three weeks atop the UK singles chart. Across the pond, it climbed to No. 30 on the all-genre Hot 100.
Prodigy had dug their way out of the underground rave scene and burst onto the mainstream, thanks in large part to Flint’s frenetic energy and primal growl: I’m the trouble starter, punkin’ instigator / I’m the fear addicted, the danger illustrated.
Outside of Music
Aside from his time in the Prodigy, Keith Flint’s other great passion was motorcycles. He helmed his own racing team, Team Traction Control, which won four Isle of Man races.
On March 4, 2019, police responding to a welfare check at the “Smack My B—- Up” singer’s Essex home. Pronounced dead at the scene, Flint’s death was initially ruled a su*cide. However, a follow-up coroner’s inquest could not find sufficient evidence to make that determination. Flint had c*caine, alcohol, and c*deine in his system at the time of his death
Featured image by Simone Joyner/Getty Images
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