4
Mar
Obituary: Keith Flint
The Prodigy vocalist was found dead at his home in the North End, near Great Dunmow, on Monday morning.
The Essex police were called to concerns for the welfare of a man at an address in Brook Hill, North End, just after 08:10 on Monday. A police spokesman confirmed that Keith Flint was pronounced dead at the scene.
His death was confirmed by Liam Howlett and Leeroy Thornhill in an emotional statement on the band’s Instagram page: “It is with deepest shock and sadness that we can confirm the death of our brother and best friend Keith Flint. A true pioneer, innovator, and legend. He will be forever missed. We thank you for respecting the privacy of all concerned at this time”. The founder of The Prodigy, Liam Howlett revealed in his Instagram post that the cause of death was suicide: “I can’t believe I’m saying this but our brother Keith took his own life over the weekend”.
Keith Charles Flint was born on 17th September 1969 to Clive and Yvonne Flint. A “bright boy with dyslexia” attended the Boswells School in Chelmsford. Being thrown out of school at the age of 15, he moved to Braintree. There he met his future bandmate DJ Liam Howlett at an open-air rave in 1989. Deeply impressed by Howlett’s musical skills, Flint approached him to ask for a personalised mixtape. Liam scored the word “Prodigy” on the cover in reference to his favourite synthesiser, putting a selection of his original songs on the B-side. Flint encouraged Howlett to pursue music professionally and offered himself as a dancer. Leeroy Thornhill joined The Prodigy and they started creating a history of their music step by step.
Pretty soon the dancer turned into a frontman alongside rapper Maxim. Keith Flint performed the vocals on The Prodigy’s best-known singles, “Firestarter” and “Breathe”, becoming one of the UK’s iconic musical figures in the 1990s.
As the news about Flint’s death spread, his fans and fellow musicians flooded the social media with tributes to the vocalist. Singer James Blunt tweeted the most heart-warming words about the deceased: “Keith, I only met you once, but I shed a tear at the news of your death. In our business, there are no prizes for being kind, but if there was, that Grammy would be yours”.
