Late SLIPKNOT Bassist's Family Gets Settlement In Overdose Lawsuit

January 23, 2018

According to The Des Moines Register, the wife and daughter of late SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray have obtained a settlement from health care providers who were blamed for his drug-overdose death.

Gray was found dead on May 24, 2010 after overdosing on drugs in a hotel room in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa, where he and SLIPKNOT were based. His family blamed the death on a Des Moines pain doctor, Daniel Baldi, who had treated Gray for years, and sued the doctor and his former employers. The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial on Monday, but it was settled over the weekend.

Baldi was accused of causing the deaths of Gray and eight others with his careless prescription habits.

The doctor was acquitted in May 2014 of seven criminal counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Paul's wife, Brenna Gray, testified during Baldi's trial that Paul's final weeks were a "blur of extreme drug abuse," which neither his doctor nor his bandmates would help his wife confront. She said that Baldi continued to prescribe Xanax for Paul despite knowing that the musician was a drug addict, saying, "I just wasn't really sure why he was on it, why he needed it along with the medication he was taking for addiction."

Baldi's lawyer cross-examined Brenna, asking her if she was aware that her husband overdosed on the painkillers fentanyl and morphine, neither of which Baldi ever prescribed to him.

Brenna also testified that she tried reaching out to some of Paul's bandmates in SLIPKNOT just days prior to the bassist's death but that none of them wanted to get involved. She revealed, "One was playing golf two minutes away from our house but couldn't come. Nobody else cared, nobody was involved. They told me it was my problem."

Brenna revealed in a 2011 interview with Revolver that her husband had agreed to get help for his drug problem just one day before he died.

After a lengthy hiatus, SLIPKNOT resumed touring in 2011, with Donnie Steele playing bass live. The band in 2014 secured the services of British musician Alessandro "Vman" Venturella to play bass on tour.

Paul was 38 years old at the time of his death.

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