Riley Gale, singer of the Dallas thrash metal band Power Trip, died on Monday. The band confirmed the news in a statement. He was 34. This story is developing.
“It is with the greatest of sadness we must announce that our lead singer and brother Riley Gale passed away last night,” the band wrote. “Riley was a friend, a brother, a son. Riley was both a larger than life rock star and a humble and giving friend. He touched so many lives through his lyrics and through his huge heart. He treated everyone he met as a friend and he always took care of his friends. We will celebrate Riley’s life and never forget the great works of music, charity, and love that he left behind. You, the fans, meant so much to him, please know how special you are. If you have a memory of Riley please share it, no matter how small, as we remember him.”
Gale was 22 when he formed Power Trip, working an office job and going to school at the University of North Texas in Denton. Power Trip released two albums on Southern Lord: their 2013 debut Manifest Decimation and 2017’s Nightmare Logic. Their rarities compilation Opening Fire: 2008-2014 was released in 2018, and a live album arrived earlier this year.
Gale was politically outspoken. The title of Power Trip’s Nightmare Logic song “If Not Us Then Who” was inspired by the late civil rights icon John Lewis. Gale spoke in interviews about how the album was also a reaction to extreme wealth disparity and the idea of a “revolt” against the very rich. Once, when Power Trip’s music played on Fox News, the band tweeted an all-caps “CEASE & DESIST.” “If you don’t like our stances, don’t support our band,” Gale said in a 2018 Revolver interview. “It doesn’t make a single difference to us. … We try to make it pretty clear that we might all be white males, but this is not a band for white males to enjoy and be dumb rednecks.”
“It’s a mystery to me that we’re as big as we are,” Gale said in that same interview. “I saw us hitting a ceiling a lot longer ago and now we’re having people telling us we could turn this into a career and I don’t know if I believe them. I don’t even know if I have it in me, but we’re going to try.”
The band is asking for privacy and donations to Dallas Hope Charities.
This article was originally published on August 25 at 8:29 p.m. Eastern. It was last updated on August 25 at 8:54 p.m. Eastern.