Douglas Kiker, the ‘Singing Garbage Man' who wowed ‘American Idol' judges, dies at 32
Douglas Kiker, the 'American Idol' contestant known as the 'Singing Garbage Man,' has died, his sisters announced this week. He was 32.
'It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce the passing of my brother Douglas Kiker,' Angela Evans wrote Wednesday on Facebook. 'He was sooo loved and will be missed by so many! [You're] singing with the [angels] now Bubba.' She also asked for prayers for the family as they go through a 'difficult time.'
'It is with heavy hearts that we have to say goodbye to one of the most sincere souls and most hilarious person of all,' his family said on a GoFundMe set up to cover funeral costs and transportation of his body from Denver. 'Douglas, a beloved son, brother, father and friend.'
Kiker, who had two children with Valerie Cook, died Monday at Colorado's Denver Health Medical Center, a representative of the Denver Medical Examiner's office told The Times Friday in an email. He had been transported there by ambulance on March 5 from a few blocks east of City Center Park. 'The cause and manner of death are pending investigation,' the email said.
Kiker earned his nickname because he sang while working his day job, hanging off the back of a garbage truck in Mobile, Ala.
He auditioned for Season 18 of 'American Idol' with zero performing experience under his belt, saying he was doing it for his little girl. He made it to Hollywood Week after charming the judges with his take on 'Bless the Broken Road.' Luke Bryan even jumped on the piano mid-audition to help Kiker figure out his range, challenging him to hit different notes.
'For a man who does not know what his voice can do, for a man who does not have an idea of what key he's singing in, for a man who does not have an idea of who he can be, he's here to do one thing. He's trying to show his daughter that he's somebody,' judge Lionel Richie proclaimed. 'I want us all to let you know, you're a hell of a man.'
The judges and host Ryan Seacrest lined up to give Kiker his ticket to Hollywood. As the judges hugged him one by one, Katy Perry wiped away a few tears.
Kiker wouldn't make it past Hollywood Week but returned to the show for the finale, doing a virtual performance of his audition song with Rascal Flatts, the group that made 'Bless the Broken Road' — first recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band — a hit in 2005. By that time, the world was in COVID-19 lockdown, hence the televised performance that saw the singers, judges and host each in his or her own Zoom-style box.
'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!'
His brother William Kiker posted a remembrance this week on Facebook. 'Dear brother I just want you to know that [no] matter where you are you will always be my baby brother,' he wrote. 'I know you are finally at [peace] I just wish I had more time with you so until I can see you again say hey to bubba for me and tell him I love him rest in peace Douglas Kiker my baby brother.'
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This story was originally published in the October 14, 2004 issue of Rolling Stone. Brian Wilson is waiting in the driveway of his Mediterranean-style Beverly Hills house, dressed entirely in brown corduroy, bouncing on his toes. More from Rolling Stone Watch Brian Wilson Play 'California Girls' and 'Good Vibrations' at His Last Concert Brian Wilson, Beach Boys Co-Founder and Architect of Pop, Dead at 82 Hear Neil Young Duet With the Beach Boys' Al Jardine 'Let's go!' he says, jumping into the car. 'Go down here, make a U-turn, I'll give you directions.' His silvery brown hair is uncombed, and he's unshaven, in a relaxed, Sunday-afternoon way. His face is tan; his smile is gentle, easy. Wilson looks good. 'We don't have to introduce each other, because we've met before,' he says. 'So, how you been?' 'Good. How about you?' 'I'm good,' he says. 'I'm great. Doing a lot of work. It's a big relief — whew! — because, you know, I've been through some rough times in my head, but I've been fighting it off.' Wilson is more active now than he's been since the Beach Boys were America's top group in the mid-Sixties. He tours relentlessly with his superb band; he released a solo album this summer, Gettin' In Over My Head, with cameos from Elton John and Paul McCartney; and now he's preparing to put out what may be his crowning achievement: an entirely new recording of the legendary, unfinished Smile, which was scrapped in 1967 and has become the most famous unheard album in rock history. Launched as the follow-up to the Beach Boys' classic Pet Sounds— and in response to the Beatles' masterful Rubber Soul and Revolver— Smile was intended to be the grandest, most complex rock & roll production ever: a loosely themed concept album about coast-to-coast 'Americana,' from Plymouth Rock to 'Blue Hawaii,' built from modular, cut-and-paste fragments of pop melody, orchestral instrumentation, recurring vocal themes and even the sounds of crunching vegetables and barnyard animals. Wilson, then twenty-four, described his epic musical tapestry as a 'teenage symphony to God.' Wilson's ambition, however, was undercut by intensifying, untreated mental illness as well as by drug use (including hashish and amphetamines) and pressure from the other Beach Boys and the group's label, Capitol, to stop messing around and start cranking out hits. Beach Boy Mike Love was the harshest critic, reportedly calling Smile 'a whole album of Brian's madness.' Wilson's behavior became erratic and paranoid. His Smile collaborator, the lyricist Van Dyke Parks, remembers going into Wilson's swimming pool fully clothed for a business meeting, because Wilson was afraid his house was bugged by his controlling father, Murry. One night, while recording a section of his 'Elements' suite about fire called 'Mrs. O'Leary's Cow,' Wilson distributed plastic fireman's helmets to the orchestra and lit a small fire in the studio so they could smell smoke. Later, Wilson learned that a building near the studio burned down and that there had been several other fires across Southern California. Wilson believed his music caused the fires, and he immediately stopped work on the song and locked the tapes away in a vault. BY May 1967, after more than eighty recording sessions, Wilson's masterwork was unraveling, and so was he. Smile was abandoned. 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