Boy bands are almost synonymous with youth and vibrancy, as the members are mainly teenage boys in the prime of their careers, sporting baby faces, lithe physiques, and brilliant singing and dancing abilities. Boy bands have typically been famous for one explosive period, often in the '80s, '90s, and '00s, and the members usually move on with solo careers or settle into family life long after the group's heyday.
But some boy band members haven't gotten the chance to do that, passing away tragically before their time, before years of reunion tours and benefit shows for nostalgic fans, and some even just while their group was in its prime. These are the boy band members that have slipped from the headlines, whose bandmates carry on their legacy by honoring them whenever possible. Here are all the boy band members who died way too young.
9 Rich Cronin
If you don't know the name Rich Cronin, check again. You probably do. Here, we'll give you a hint: "When I met you, I said my name was Rich, you look like a girl from Abercrombie and Fitch." The LFO frontman wrote what would become the group's biggest track, "Summer Girls," and which gave us some famous lines that haunt our '90s dreams: "New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits, Chinese food makes me sick." Rich Cronin enjoyed success in the late '90s and early '00s with the 3-member boy band (along with Devin Lima and Brad Frischetti) put together by boy band mogul and con man Lou Pearlman. The Boston-born star passed away tragically in 2010 when he suffered a stroke related to complications from both leukemia and a stem cell transplant. He was just 36 years old.
8 Devin Lima
Yes, you read that right. Devin Lima, Rich Cronin's bandmate in LFO also passed away, leaving Brad Frischetti the last living member of LFO. In 2018, Devin Lima lost his battle with stage 4 cancer at age 41. We can only imagine how sad and lonely this must feel for Brad Frischetti. At the time of Devin Lima's death, he posted on Twitter: "It is with a truly broken heart to say that my brother Harold 'Devin' Lima passed away early this morning after a valiant battle with cancer," he said. "Devin, as the world knows him, was an extraordinary talent, a doting father to his six children, and a loving partner to their mother." Brad Frischetti still performs and participates in events to keep the LFO memory alive.
7 Les McKeown
Music historians credit the Bay City Rollers with being the catalyst for the boy band as a concept, though that term was still decades away from being born when the Bay City Rollers were active in the 1970s. Les McKeown led the Scottish pop group, most known for hits such as "I Only Want to Be With You" and "Money Honey." He died just this spring of a heart attack at his home and though he was 65 years old, he no doubt had many good years of life left, and left behind a wife, Peko, and a son, Richard.
6 Stephen Gately
Irish group Boyzone dominated the boy band scene beginning in 1993, and as the co-lead singer, Stephen Gately enjoyed massive success with the group as well as a moderately successful solo career. His fans and bandmates were shocked and devastated when his body was discovered in the home he shared with his partner in October of 2009. He was just 33. A post-mortem and toxicology tests revealed that he had died as a result of congenital heart failure; he had not been aware of any heart condition.
5 Ray Reyes
You can't talk about boy bands without talking about Menudo, the Latino group who dominated the 1980s and whose most famously spawned success story is that of Ricky Martin. Though the group's members fluctuated, its golden era lineup consisted of 7 teen boys, one of which was Ray Reyes. He was famously forced out of the group when he hit a growth spurt that caused him to be too tall for the group's young boy image, but he spearheaded a successful reunion tour in 1997 that delighted fans everywhere. The Puerto Rican singer died in April 2021 of a massive heart attack at age 51.
4 Anthony Galindo
Venezuelen Menudo member Anthony Galindo died at age 41 in October 2020 after being hospitalized for suicide attempts. His family states that his depression was caused by the COVID shutdown, and specifically by all the musical performances and opportunities to perform that were canceled. This makes Menudo the second boy band to have more than one previous member die, along with LFO.
3 Jonghyun
The main vocalist of South Korean group Shinee, Jonghyun died by suicide in December 2017 at age 27 after a long battle with debilitating depression. All proceeds from his posthumous album Poet I Artist went to set up a charity foundation which his family now operates and uses to support young artists.
2 Chris Trousdale
If you blinked in 2000, you might have missed Dream Street's success. Just pull up "It Happens Every Time" on Spotify and give it a listen; you'll pretty much get the picture. The group consisted of five preteen boys, one of whom was Jesse McCartney, the teen boy sensation who would go on to have a successful solo career. Chris Trousdale was just 34 when he died in June of 2020. Though many outlets reported that he died from COVID-19, his family reports it was an undisclosed illness, not the coronavirus. His 35th birthday was just 9 days later and his bandmates gathered for a virtual performance of the aforementioned single.
1 Kim Jong-Hyun
The Korean pop group icon better known as Yohan, of the group TST, died at age 28 in June of 2020. TST had just released a single ahead of a planned album when the singer died, devastating his groupmates and fans. His cause of death remains undisclosed at the behest of his family.
