Walk Off The Earth keyboardist Mike ‘Beard Guy’ Taylor dead… as band reveals ‘he passed peacefully from natural causes in his sleep’
Canadian rock band Walk Off the Earth announced Sunday that their beloved keyboard player Mike ‘Beard Guy’ Taylor has passed away.
‘It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Mike ‘Beard Guy’ Taylor,’ said a statement from the band on their Twitter page.
‘Mike had a love for life that was unmatched and a willingness to give that went beyond ordinary means,’ the statement continued. ‘He passed peacefully from natural causes last night in his sleep.’
RIP Mike: Walk Off the Earth keyboardist Mike ‘Beard Guy’ Taylor has passed away
‘Our deepest sympathies are with his two children, whom he adored more than anything else in the world,’ the statement continued.
‘We ask for privacy for his family in this trying time,’ the statement concluded.
While Taylor primarily played keyboard for the group, he also provided backup vocals and played several other instruments such as the xylophone, glockenspiel and trumpet.
Band’s statement: ‘It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Mike ‘Beard Guy’ Taylor,’ said a statement from the band on their Twitter page
Taylor joined Walk Off The Earth in 2006, shortly after the group was founded in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
The group created a number of different cover songs, and their 2012 cover of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know.
The accompanying video, where all five members of the group played one guitar, went viral, amassing 175 million views on YouTube in just four months.
In memoriam: ‘Our deepest sympathies are with his two children, whom he adored more than anything else in the world,’ the statement continued
Shortly after that cover, they signed with Columbia Records, where they released the 2013 album R.E.V.O. and Sing It All Away in 2015.
They most recently released EPs entitled Holiday Beard Ballads Vol. 1 in 2017 and Subscribe to the Holidays, released in November.
The group is slated to perform a New Year’s Eve gig on Monday night at Queen Victoria Park in Niagara Falls, Canada.
Beard Guy: They most recently released EPs entitled Holiday Beard Ballads Vol. 1 in 2017 and Subscribe to the Holidays, released in November
Walk Off the Earth is slated to go on a world tour that spans most of 2019.
The tour kicks off February 9 at Rath Eastlink Communiy Centre in Truro, Canada, with the tour also spanning the Midwest and East Coast before heading to Europe and back to North America again.
The tour concludes August 3 at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver. There is no word from the band yet if this tour will still happen as scheduled, in the wake of Taylor’s passing.
On tour: Walk Off the Earth is slated to go on a world tour that spans most of 2019