And Then There Were Eight

Another casualty of the end of Lost? (Anybody who dies after today can be attributed to 24 or Law & Order)

Paul Gray, aka #2 or "The Pig", the bassist for the nine-man metal ensemble Slipknot, was found dead yesterday in an Iowa hotel room. Police said there were no signs of foul play, so that there is a bonafide, drug related OD. A hotel employee found Gray (38) dead in his room, where he had been staying for a couple of days. When I die, I hope it's not in a hotel room in Des Moines...

In 2003, Gray acknowledged that he was on drugs when his Porsche collided with another car that year in Des Moines. No one was seriously injured, and under a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped charges of possession of marijuana, cocaine and syringes. His physician at the time described discussions with Gray that were "very frank and open about his sporadic use of various drugs and of the long periods of abstinence in between."

Slipknot is on a yearlong hiatus, and most of the band's members grew up in the Des Moines area.