Rapper Lil Peep died of a suspected drug overdose just before he was to perform Wednesday night at a Tucson club. He was 21.
Tucson police said the musician, whose real name was Gustav Ahr, was found dead on his tour bus ahead of a scheduled concert at The Rock, 136 N. Park Ave.
Sgt. Pete Dugan, Tucson police spokesman, said evidence pointed to an overdose of the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, although no official cause of death has been announced.
Pima County released a statement saying the Medical Examiner’s Office has conducted an autopsy and that the suspected cause of death is a drug overdose. However it will be six to eight weeks to get the toxicology report needed to make a determination of the cause of death.
The medical examiner contracts toxicology testing with an independent laboratory and that comprehensive toxicology testing can take up to seven weeks, the county said in its statement.
Sarah Stennett, who runs First Access Entertainment, a company that previously worked with Ahr, said in a statement that she was “shocked and heartbroken.”
“He was highly intelligent, hugely creative, massively charismatic, gentle and charming,” she said. “He had huge ambition and his career was flourishing.”
A Long Island native who later relocated to Los Angeles, Ahr built his career on homemade mixtapes released on the audio sharing platform SoundCloud.
Millions of online listens led to the August release of his first full-length album, “Come Over When You’re Sober, Part 1.”
With tattoos covering his body and parts of his face and a shock of blond hair, Ahr’s striking appearance caught the fashion world’s attention. He made runway appearances for several labels in Europe and his ambitions in that realm rivaled his dreams for his rap career.
In her statement, Stennett passed along comments by Ahr’s mother.
“She asked me to convey that she is very, very proud of him and everything he was able to achieve in his short life,” Stennett wrote.
