In this excerpt from Ep. 1, Mike Hamilton and Jacoby Kingston of Deeds of Flesh candidly recount hearing of their bandmate Erik Lindmark’s passing.
Anthony T (1:26:42): So where do we go from here? We’re basically at the new album…
Jacoby K: All right, the meeting’s over… No! [laughter]
Anthony T: So, you said you started the family and that was how many years [ago]?
Jacoby K: 13 years I was retired… So I got a phone call from Mike and he said, “I don’t think Eric’s doing very well. He’s in the hospital.” And I was like, “Oh crap man, what’s going on?” And I kind of had it in my head, maybe we should fly out and just see him in the hospital. I hadn’t talked to Eric in a lot of years. We had a bit of a falling out because of the label, there was just money issues and stuff. And I felt bad and I was like, “Dude, I kind of left with Eric on a sore note.” So I had it in my mind to go see him.
He was in the hospital for a few days. I really didn’t know how serious it was. He was in the ICU so I knew it was kind of serious. But then he got out of the hospital [and went home],
so in the back of my mind, [I thought] “Okay he’s good, I don’t need to fly out there, he’s okay.”
Two months after that, Matty [Way] calls me up. He’s crying, he’s like, “Dude, Eric just passed away.” I was like, “What?” It was a total shock to my system.
Those two months between when I heard he was in the hospital, to when he died, he was just withering away. And nobody knew it, because Eric, he’s a private guy. He’s a hermit, and he’s not going to tell anybody when he’s hurting.
So it was a crappy thing to find out, basically. And I knew, at the very least, Mike and I were going out for the funeral.
Mike Hamilton (1:28:35): Yeah, I had got a call from Matty, and Matty was like, “Yeah, Eric’s kind of sick, he’s not doing so well.” And like Jacoby said, Eric was kind of a reclusive guy. He didn’t really divulge too much information. He [was the] kind of guy that really would never ask for help.
So we didn’t know at all until it was too late. We got the call, Matty told me like he’s not doing good. And like Jacoby said, like a week later, he’s like, “He’s in hospice and they had the priest come in and read the last rites.” And I was just like…[I] didn’t even know how to digest that; I was just shocked. And then I called Jacoby right after, like, “Hey dude, we gotta get out there.” And so it was, it’s a bummer man.
It’s a testament to: listen to your body. When things start happening to your body [and] you don’t feel normal, go get it checked out. Because, Eric didn’t really… I don’t think he understood what was going on with his body. You know, men are kind of always tough like, “Oh I can tough it out; I don’t need to go get checked out.” And I think that mentality was his ultimate demise, because it was a lot more serious than he thought. So it’s unfortunate that he passed, especially the way he did, because he was such a strong guy, mentally [and] physically. And to have something like that take him down is pretty brutal, you know. So yeah, rest in peace Eric.
So I felt it was very important for me and Jacoby to step in. His last body of work has to see the light of day, [it] can’t just be put on a shelf…
Anthony T: How long had he been working on it before he had realized he was sick?
Mike H: Well, I don’t know, to be honest. Because the thing is that he had he had moved to Florida. He moved out there for personal reasons. And we would talk on the phone. He called me up and said, “Hey, I’m demoing the new record with Craig and I’m gonna send you some tracks.” I’m like, “Okay cool.” And so I learned the first three songs and then, at that point, I had a family emergency and I had to step down. I was like “I’m in no position to really record,” because my brother had passed, and it was a shock to my family. So I was just like, “I’m not going to be able to be on this record.” But after this thing happened with Eric, me and Jacoby were you know talking at [Eric’s] funeral. We knew we had to come back into the fold and get it done. So we made that commitment to Eric, and to the Deeds fans, and to Maddy, and also to Jamie, that we would do everything we [could] in our power to contribute to this and get it done. So that Eric’s final body of work would be able to be enjoyed by the fans that loved his music so much.
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