Rick James: Depends On Your Definition of “Natural Causes”

I was truly hoping, but my hope has proved unfounded: a 56 year-old man with a stroke in his past and a lengthy and extensive history of drug abuse should not have nine different drugs in his system – cocaine AND meth and the man had a flipping pace-maker? I guess it wasn’t natural causes:

Funk singer Rick James died of a heart attack that may have been brought on by at least nine drugs that were found in his system, a US coroner has said.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death was accidental.

“None of the drugs or drug combinations were found to be at levels that were life-threatening in and of themselves,” coroner David Campbell said.

Drugs found in James’ system at the time of his death included cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription drugs Xanax, Valium, Wellbutrin, Celexa, Vicodin and Digoxin.

James, who once proclaimed himself an “icon of drug use and eroticism”, suffered a stroke in 1998 and had a pace-maker fitted.

His family attributed James’ death to natural causes, but the coroner subsequently took over the case because James had not seen a doctor in the weeks before his death. [BBC]

Mac Diva has an interesting look at Rick James as rock star and soul man here, Thrasher takes a look WAY back to James playing with Neil Young in the Mynah Birds, and I take a listen to his Anthology here.