Slipknot Bassist Paul Dedrick Gray Found Dead

Urbandale police say 38-year-old Paul Dedrick Gray, the bassist for the Grammy-winning Iowa metal band Slipknot, has been found dead in a suburban Des Moines Town Plaza Hotel room by a hotel employee. Foul play wasn’t suspected and the Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office plans an autopsy Tuesday.

Most Slipknot members grew up in the Des Moines area. Paul Gray, known as #2, relocated with family from Los Angeles to Des Moines and joined Slipknot; he has played for the entire Slipknot career up to this point.

It is said that Paul had a darker side to his life, dealing with drugs and alcohol abuse, though it was announced on his MySpace page this year that he was expecting a child with his wife Brenna.

Amy Sciarretto, a publicist at the band’s record company, Roadrunner Records, confirmed Gray’s death but declined further comment. Slipknot’s self-titled debut in 1999 sold more than a million copies. Known for its grotesque masks, trashing sound and aggressive lyrics, the band won a Grammy in 2006 for best metal performance for the song “Before I Forget.”