Prodigy’s Keith Flint Remembered by the Group’s Longtime Publicist (Guest Column)
By Sioux Zimmerman
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Fans of veteran British electronic-rock outfit The Prodigy were stunned Monday morning to learn that Keith Flint, the group’s wild-eyed, heavily pierced, tattooed and mohawked frontman and visual foil, had died of a suicide. While social media and the British press quickly filled with remembrances and tributes — despite his fearsome appearance, by all accounts Flint was a kind and loving man — among the most moving was a post today by the group’s longtime publicist, Sioux Zimmerman of Magnum PR, who worked with them for 17 years. She graciously agreed to allow Variety to share the post below.
When you work with someone for 17 years, they are so much more than your clients. They become friends, and more so, family. The will always be my extended family.
I am in this biz not only because I love music, but because of the people with whom I work who make it my passion. I don’t look at it like business — rather, my PR work is a vehicle for me to turn others on to the very same thing that drives me every day, the music that hopefully will inspire them in any possible way when they listen.
The Prodigy — Keith (Flinty), Liam, Maxim, Leeroy, John Fairs, Mike Champion and Con — accepted me into their family. I went on endless tours with them, flew to far-away places, I worked and raved, and they even had a nickname for me: To them, I will always be known as “Fuzzy Sioux.” I had a fuzzy backpack, a fuzzy CD case, a fuzzy lighter and yeah, after a night of dancing as hard as I could to their live sets, featuring select cuts from “Music for the Jilted Generation,” “Fat of the Land” and more, my hair even became fuzzy. In the mornings I’d drag myself up, after hardly any sleep the night before, pack up my fuzzy accessories, always flustered and in a mad dash, panicking that I would keep the band waiting for me at their van to go to next destination.
But what put me at ease, what I adored and looked forward to most, was hearing Keith say “Morning Fuzz, had fun last night?” My response: “Of course I did, you rock my world!”
Keith, you were a genuine soul, the boldest and baddest punk rocker who will forever shine a light and make us always feel part of your jilted generation. RIP
When The Prodigy toured Lollapalooza in 1997, Keith, Liam and Maxim drew my fuzzy hair onto my crew pass. The top photo below is the front of the pass “Before The Prodigy played”; the lower one is “After The Prodigy played.”
