User:CrowzRSA/Sandbox/Sandbox 2/Paul Gray

Personal life and death
Gray was born in Los Angeles, California. Later his family relocated to Des Moines, Iowa. In an interview, he admitted that he had a "crazy" childhood. Gray said that he was living with no family by fourteen, being both homeless and resided in friend's houses. When he was nearly seventeen, he bought his own apartment, and moved to Des Moines, Iowa when he was eighteen. In his youth, Gray performed in bands such as Anal Blast, Vexx, Body Pit, and Inveigh Catharsi.

In June 2003, Gray crashed his car into another vehicle. After police were called to the scene and searched his car, Gray was arrested for possession of cannabis, cocaine, drug paraphernalia, and failure to obey a traffic signal. He was sentenced to one year of informal probation. Turmoil was caused within Slipknot's fanbase when Gray's mugshot from the incident surfaced, as at this time, with the exception of Corey Taylor and guitarist James Root, unobstructed photographs of most members of the band's faces were exceptionally rare.

On May 24, 2010, The Des Moines Register reported that Gray had been found dead in a room at the Towneplace Suites hotel in Urbandale, Iowa at about 10:50 local time. He is survived by his wife Brenna who was expecting their first child at the time of his death. An initial autopsy determined that no foul play or trauma was involved, but could not establish the cause of death.

The next day, May 25 2010, The Des Moines Register announced that, according to a 911 tape obtained by WOI-DT, bottles of pills and a hypodermic needle were found next to the body of Gray in his hotel room. On the same day, the band held a formal press conference in Des Moines, Iowa. They did not take any questions from the media. The band, as well as Gray's brother Tony and wife Brenna, paid tribute to him. On June 21, 2010, autopsy results were released that stated Gray had died of an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl, and had also shown signs of "significant heart disease".

Musical Career
While Gray was working at a record store in Des Moines, he met Anders Colsefini and Shawn "Clown" Crahan, who told him that they needed a bass player for their band Painface. Although he had no had experience with playing bass, Gray still joined the band. Gray later joined The Pale Ones in September 1995. Both groups are considered to have started Slipknot. When he and joined Slipknot in 1996, they released the demo album Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.. He released another demo album with them, entitled Slipknot, known as the Slipknot demo. By 1998, Gray and the band were recording their debut album, Slipknot, at Indigo Ranch in Malibu, California under the major record company Roadrunner Records. In 2001, Slipknot released Iowa, and in 2004, the band released Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). His final album, 2008's All Hope Is Gone, would peak number one on the Billboard 200. A few months after the release of All Hope Is Gone, Paul Gray starred in the instructional video Behind the Player: Paul Gray.

Gray also performed with the project organized