Former 3 Doors Down Guitarist Matt Roberts Dead At 38

Matt Roberts, the former guitarist for 3 Doors Down, has died. He was only 38-years-old.

The musician was traveling with his father in West Bend, WI. He was rehearsing early Saturday morning for his upcoming performance at the “Rockin’ for Heroes” benefit, which is a charity event for veterans.

Darrell Roberts, Matt’s father, told CNN the last time he saw his son at the hotel. “We go up to our room, we got adjoining rooms and — he was always looking after me as his dad — so my key didn’t work and he went and came back in just a few minutes and got me a new key. He opened the door for me and he said ‘just make sure you open the adjoining room in case you need anything.’ He was always looking out for me,” Roberts said.

Roberts said detectives woke him up Saturday to inform him that his son had died. “I was wakened at 8:50 this morning by some detectives beating on my door. It’s always scary as a parent, they were in suits and that’s when they told me. They asked me if Matt Roberts was your son, I said yes, and they said ‘we have bad news to tell you, Matt deceased last night,'” Roberts said.

On Saturday, the West Bend Police Department received a call that a man was “either asleep or passed out in the hallway of his hotel.”

Darrell told CNN how his son had a problem with drugs.

Darrell said his son had struggled with anxiety and an addiction to prescription medication since his time with 3 Doors Down. “I know he had prescription drug addiction. He suffered greatly from anxiety. It’s crazy as a performer; he never liked crowds or liked places he didn’t know about as a baby, as a child, and this was his way of dealing with it and me and him talked about it often,” Roberts said. Matt was not in treatment for his addiction but his father believed he was doing much better. “I thought he had beaten it all,” he said.

The father still plans to attend the charity event. “That’s what he would have liked, he put all this energy and effort to come out here to perform. I’ll put his guitar on stage and light it up and I’m going to say thanks to everybody and leave and go home in the morning,” he said.

Matt was one of the founding members of 3 Doors Down, but he left the band in 2012 because of “health issues concerning blood circulation in his body,” according to TMZ.

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