Douglas Kiker reportedly looked so unwell before his death that a passerby called 911 to report it
Douglas Kiker, the 'Singing Garbage Man' of 'American Idol' Season 18, reportedly looked bad enough before he was hospitalized that a pedestrian who passed him on the street decided to call 911.
Kiker died March 10 at Colorado's Denver Health Medical Center, a representative of the Denver Medical Examiner's office told The Times on Friday in an email. He had been transported there March 5 by ambulance from a few blocks east of City Center Park.
Before Kiker was hospitalized, he appeared to be experiencing an overdose, the caller said, according to TMZ. Kiker, unofficially, suffered a drug-induced heart attack, sources outside of law enforcement told the website.
But 'the cause and manner of death are pending investigation,' authorities said Friday.
The Mobile, Ala., man, who earned his nickname singing while hanging off of his day-job trash truck, auditioned for 'American Idol' Season 18, charming the judges with his unaffected nature and raw talent. He earned his ticket to Hollywood but was dismissed, as so many are, during the first Hollywood round.
Even so, he returned to the competition for the finale episode, doing a virtual performance of his audition song, 'Bless the Broken Road,' with Rascal Flatts, the group that turned the tune first recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band into a hit in 2005. By that time, the world was in COVID-19 lockdown and the televised performance saw the singers, judges and host each in his or her own Zoom-style box, far apart even as Kiker and the band were singing together.
'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!'
Kiker, who was 32, was the father of two young girls with Valerie Cook. Sister Faith Evans, who posted word of his death Wednesday afternoon on Facebook, responded later that day to people who had asked about helping the family.
'[A]s this was completely unexpected we are completely unprepared and are gonna need a little help getting him home from denver colorado and being able to give the memorial that not only he but anyone deserves,' Evans wrote Wednesday night, referring people to a GoFundMe that has since earned more than the amount that was sought. She apologized for her delay in responding, saying to 'charge it to our mind not our hearts.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Sinners' Deleted Musical Scene Gives Delroy Lindo Another Song as Slim
'Sinners' has captivated audiences across the U.S. with its showstopping musical numbers and gory vampire horror but also with some of the most gorgeous cinematography seen in a horror film in recent years. Even the deleted scenes, like the ones released by Warner Bros. to mark the film's on-demand release, have a jaw-dropping beauty and powerful musical quality to them. One of those scenes was released by Movieclips on its YouTube page on Sunday, and it shows Delroy Lindo as the talented, funny and ultimately heroic blues musician Delta Slim, playing his own ad-libbed song 'Preachin'' in the Smokestack Twins' juke joint before the vampires come in and tear it apart. It's clear why director Ryan Coogler cut the scene. Its laid-back atmosphere does not fit with the increasingly party-like atmosphere and rising tension that simmers in the juke joint before the vampires arrive. But if you listen to the words Slim is singing, they fit quite well with Preacher Boy Sammie's arc over the course of the story. The lyrics about a preacher seducing a woman with his sermon echo Sammie's inner conflict between not wanting to lose his father whom he loves and not wanting to obey his father's order to give up the music he's so passionate about and which helps him find a new relationship with Pearline. The performance is filmed in one take with a split diopter shot, in which the cinematographer puts a convex lens over half of the camera to capture a subject in the foreground in one half of the frame and another subject farther away. The result, as you can see in the clip above, is a closeup, side profile shot of Delta Slim pouring his soul into the piano while Preacher Boy Sammie and Pearline, played by Miles Caton and Jayme Lawson, look on. 'Sinners' has become the highest grossing original live-action film at the U.S. box office since Alfonso Cuarón's 'Gravity' in 2013, grossing $272 million and counting domestically. The film is now available for digital rental and purchase on Fandango At Home and will be released on Blu-Ray on July 8. You can watch the deleted scene in the video above. The post 'Sinners' Deleted Musical Scene Gives Delroy Lindo Another Song as Slim | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Engadget
an hour ago
- Engadget
Every WWDC should end with a song composed of app reviews
To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Partway through WWDC 2025, I started tracking every time I heard the word "delightful." I might have missed a few, but there were at least eight times when some exec was insisting to me that an element of the upcoming iOS 26, macOS Tahoe and Apple's other platforms merited the adjective. And maybe some people truly do feel unfettered joy about UI design, but that's the sort of attitude in these events that makes me roll my eyes. Apple always tries very hard to inject levity and personality into its keynotes. Most of the time, that winds up leaning on cringe from Craig Federighi, who seems quite affable about being the punchline. Sometimes I smirk a little, but again, more often than not, it's another eye-roll. That was the case this year, as Apple bludgeoned us with a tie-in for its upcoming F1 movie , which already leans pretty hard on product placement. Then there's the developer devotion. Yes, Apple needs devs to use its tools and programs. Yes, the company can and should give them some kudos. But sometimes, the adulation that I've heard heaped on the WWDC audience in the past is so cheesy, so over-eager that it flies way past sincerity and into schlock. Just as I was ready to turn off the stream, the curtain rose on a grand piano. And to my surprise, the final three minutes of a full band performing real reviews of apps became the actual highlight of WWDC for me. This isn't an original idea. Reviews, good and bad, are well-mined fodder for comedians and social media content. Jimmy Fallon, James Corden and others have made musical gags a staple of recent late night talk shows. But the way Apple decided to do it this year was, in a word, delightful. Each review was heartfelt or dopey or both; see "saved my marriage" for Citymapper and "If this doesn't win best app of the year, I'll eat my shoe" for Lost in Play. It took the essential internet wisdom of "don't read the comments" and turned it into gold. This silly little song managed to do everything Apple wants to do at WWDC in a really amusing package. It's the dev props, it's the splashy production, it's legit entertainment. For anyone who, like me, was actually humming the tune even after the stream ended, the video is up as a standalone on YouTube and was performed by soul/R&B singer Allen Stone. And to whatever producer came up with this idea: you have my utmost appreciation. Six out of five stars indeed.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Judge dismisses Justin Baldoni's $400 million countersuit against Blake Lively
NEW YORK — A judge dismissed Justin Baldoni's lawsuits against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and the New York Times on Monday. Baldoni and his Wayfair production company were countersuing the actors for $400 million and the New York Times for $250 million for defamation, citing an article the paper published about the production of 'It Ends With Us,' which Lively co-starred in with Baldoni and produced with Reynolds. The article details Baldoni's alleged sexual harassment and retaliation against Lively, 37, and her December lawsuit against the director. He argued the article amounted to a smear campaign and denied the allegations. The article was 'rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions' that relied on Lively's 'self-serving narrative,' his complaint read. The power couple's publicist, Leslie Sloane, was also named in the lawsuit. The legal back-and-forth between the two parties at one point saw Baldoni's team subpoenaing Taylor Swift only to withdraw the request for the pop star to testify. Baldoni, 41, filed a motion to have Lively's original lawsuit dismissed but a ruling has not been made. In Monday's ruling, the court found that Lively was not liable for her claims because the allegations originated in a civil rights complaint. Similarly, since the New York Times based its story on Lively's original complaint, they were also not liable. Reynolds, who called Baldoni a 'sexual predator,' was also not liable since his statement was consistent with Lively's recollection of events and he had no reason to believe she was lying. 'The Times reviewed the available evidence and reported, perhaps in a dramatized manner, what it believed to have happened,' Southern District of New York judge Lewis J. Liman wrote in his 132-page opinion. 'The Times had no obvious motive to favor Lively's version of events.' 'Even if they turn out to be unneeded, an employee can insist on protections at workplace for sexual harassment without being accused of extortion,' Liman wrote. 'If an employer accedes, it cannot later claim to be a victim of the employee's wrongful threats.' Baldoni has until June 23 to decide whether or not to amend the claims for breach of implied covenant and tortious interference with contract, according to People. 'Today's opinion is a total victory and a complete vindication for Blake Lively, along with those that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties dragged into their retaliatory lawsuit, including Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Sloane and The New York Times,' Lively's lawyers said in a statement. 'As we have said from day one, this '$400 million' lawsuit was a sham, and the court saw right through it. We look forward to the next round, which is seeking attorneys' fees, treble damages and punitive damages against Baldoni, Sarowitz, Nathan, and the other Wayfarer parties who perpetrated this abusive litigation.' A trial for Lively's suit is scheduled for March. 'It Ends With Us' is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's best-selling novel of the same name and centers on intimate partner abuse, both physical and emotional. ________
