Cocaine, heart disease cause of rocker's death

By MARTIN HICKMAN in LONDON

The Who bass guitarist John Entwistle died in a Las Vegas hotel from a heart attack brought on by taking cocaine on the eve of the band's American tour, a coroner has found.

Entwistle spent the evening of June 26 at the Hard Rock Hotel with band members before going to bed with a female companion at 3am.

A report from the United States coroner's office said the woman, stripper Alison Rowse, woke at 10am to find the musician "unresponsive and cold to the touch".

At yesterday's inquest at Tewkesbury Magistrates' Court in Gloucestershire, Professor Alexander Forrest, Britain's leading forensic toxicologist, said: "Cocaine would not have caused death on its own. This was not cocaine poisoning.

"This sort of level would not have caused his death had it not been for the effects it had on his damaged heart."

He estimated the 57-year-old rocker used the drug three to four hours before his death.

Entwistle formed The Who in London in 1964 with singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend and drummer Keith Moon, who died of a drug overdose in 1978.

His family and friends did not attend yesterday's inquest, near his home at Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds, which went through written statements and evidence gathered by Nevada authorities.

A picture emerged of a happy man who had health problems caused by high cholesterol and smoking.

In a statement, Tim Healey, his GP, said Entwistle had suffered from high blood pressure and high cholesterol for some years.



Doctor Jeremy Uff, of Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, who examined the body upon its return from America, described Entwistle's heart condition as severe.

Lester Maddrell, the Cheltenham and district coroner, said Entwistle died from the effects of a moderate usage of cocaine superimposed on heart disease.

- INDEPENDENT