As American Idol’s twenty third season continues on the 2025 TV schedule, extra data has come out a few previous contestant whose life got here to a tragic finish in March. Season 18 alum Doug Kiker, higher recognized to followers because the “Singing Rubbish Man,” died from an opioid overdose at age 32, and his ex-fiancée Valerie Cook dinner has opened up in regards to the struggles he confronted.
Again in 2020, Doug Kiker took the nation by storm when he introduced former American Idol choose Katy Perry to tears along with his audition. Followers instantly liked the Singing Rubbish Man’s story, however off digital camera, he allegedly struggled with dependancy. Valerie Cook dinner informed US Weekly:
He has an extended historical past of drug abuse. He had dabbled in just a few various things, however all of that is sort of stunning.
Doug Kiker died March 10. Valerie Cook dinner was knowledgeable by an investigator that he died of a drug-induced coronary heart assault, with the most recent experiences ruling it an unintentional overdose as a result of results of fentanyl, methadone, amphetamines and up to date cocaine use.
The previous couple broke up in 2021, and regardless of sharing two daughters, they weren’t in contact. Valerie Cook dinner moved to Florida after the cut up, and Doug Kiker lived in Colorado. She mentioned:
I don’t know if he had a mobile phone. He by no means reached out, and he by no means tried to assist [his kids]. Due to the historical past, I by no means reached out. I believed it was safer for the children.
The singer made headlines unrelated to American Idol in 2021, when Doug Kiker was arrested for home violence in Alabama, the place he lived with Valerie Cook dinner earlier than their cut up. The cost was categorized as harassment. Authorities had responded to a 911 name from an unidentified lady, and there was allegedly possible trigger to arrest the singer.
It’s a tragic ending for a younger man who received over the hearts of America. Doug Kiker had no formal musical coaching, and whereas American Idol did the Singing Rubbish Man sort of soiled within the Hollywood rounds the place he was eradicated, he’d made such a robust impression on followers that the present invited him to seem on the Season 18 finale, the place he sang “Bless the Damaged Highway” with Rascal Flatts.
His former fiancée mentioned he loved the nickname bestowed on him throughout his quarter-hour of actuality TV fame, making his premature demise all of the extra tragic. Valerie Cook dinner mentioned:
He loved it and favored it and all the eye from it. He simply wouldn’t cease doing [what] he was doing to pursue it additional. He had the means to take action and had folks behind him supporting him. The medicine had been simply getting in the way in which.
Doug Kiker is simply the most recent of a number of American Idol alumni gone too quickly. In 2023, Season 14 contestant CJ Harris died of a coronary heart assault at 31. A yr earlier, Season 19 runner-up Willie Spence died in a automotive wreck at age 23, and extra lately, Season 5’s Mandisa was discovered lifeless in her residence in 2024 on the age of 47.
It’s so horrible so as to add one other younger singer to the listing of American Idol contestants we’ve misplaced, and our ideas are with Doug Kiker’s family members as they proceed to course of his passing.