Former 24-7 Spyz frontman P. Fluid has died, aged 64

Former 24-7 Spyz frontman and co-founder P. Fluid has died at the age of 64.

Per Rolling Stone, P. Fluid – real name Peter Forrest – was found badly beaten in the back of an abandoned vehicle in the Bronx, New York. The vehicle is an ambulette bus, a van specially equipped to cater to disabled passengers in non-emergency situations.

Forrest had worked for the company that owned the vehicle, and he reportedly suffered “trauma around the body”. Rolling Stone reported that the New York Police Department are now looking into his death as a homicide.

Fox News reported that Forrest’s body had been discovered by EMS workers on Monday morning (January 13), with the police adding that the vehicle appeared to had been abandoned in the area for some time.

Forrest performed as P. Fluid in 24-7 Spyz, a heavy metal band he co-founded in 1986 that gained a fanbase in the 1990s for their radical fusion of heavy metal, reggae, and hard rock. This led to their prominence that decade alongside funk metal bands Living Colour and Faith No More.

Forrest was also a reported co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition, an artists’ collective and nonprofit organisation in New York founded in 1985.

He recorded and wrote songs for the band in three of their albums: 1989’s ‘Harder Than You’, 1990’s ‘Gumbo Millennium’, and 1995’s ‘Temporarily Disconnected’. Per Rolling Stone, in 1990, Forrest had originally announced his departure from the band at a Jane’s Addiction concert, where they performed as openers. He would return to the band to perform on ‘Temporarily Disconnected’ before leaving again.

Upon his second and permanent departure, Forrest’s position was instead filled by existing member Jimi Hazel, who remains in the band to this day as frontman and lead guitarist.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Hazel remembered Forrest: “He brought a sense of reckless abandon, but in a fun way. He was climbing on the rafters. When he wanted to sing, he could sing. But he got more into screaming and shouting.”

On his own, Forrest took part in short-lived projects, including a supergroup with Living Colour’s Corey Glover and former Fishbone member Angelo Moore. He also resurfaced in the 2010s with a goth rock project named BlkVampires, in which he donned white makeup for their shows.

“What an interesting dude,” Hazel told Rolling Stone. “I’m grateful to him because if we had not met up on the street in 1986, 24/7 Spyz would not have happened. You either loved him or hated him, but if you loved him, you loved him unconditionally. He was a motherfucker, but he was a good motherfucker.”