Beej Chaney was called a “punk rock hero,” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and he clearly lived a full life.
It was a life, however, that has come to an end.
Chaney, 68, who played with the band The Suburbs, was reportedly found on Jan. 5, after he went for a swim in the Pacific Ocean.
The Star Tribune reported that Chaney had a daily routine of swimming in the ocean, and that he went out around sunset. Friends and bandmates reportedly found his body on Hermosa Beach later that night.
The newspaper said that the Hermosa Beach Police Department said crews responded to a call at around 7 p.m. after Chaney’s body washed up. His death was ruled accidental. The Suburbs drummer Hugo Klaers told the newspaper that Chaney survived a near-death experience during a swim last year. On that occasion, he said, the musician collapsed on the beach.
“His body temperature had dropped to like 75 degrees,” Klaer told the newspaper. “They put him in an induced coma for three days and he actually came back, and the doctor called him ‘her little miracle’ because she said most people when their body temperature gets this low don’t survive. They told him he couldn’t swim for a month and any future swimming he had to wear a wet suit because he was only wearing swim trunks when he was swimming in the ocean.”
Chaney helped found The Suburbs in 1977 and played with the band through 2014.
