Former Guitarist for 3 Doors Down Dies in West Bend Before Honor Flight Concert

(CNN) Matt Roberts, best known as a former guitarist for the band 3 Doors Down, has died, according to his father Darrell Roberts.

Roberts says he traveled with Matt from their home in Mississippi to West Bend, WI where Matt was scheduled to perform in a charity show to raise money for Honor Flight Veterans. He says they landed Friday and Matt practiced with a band until 1:00 AM Saturday morning.

After that, his last interaction with his son was outside his hotel room.

“We go up to our room, we got adjoining rooms and- he was always looking after me as his dad – so my key didn’t work and he went and came back in just a few minutes and got me a new key, he opened the door for me and he said ‘just make sure you open the adjoining room in case you need anything.’ He was always looking out for me,” Roberts said.

Roberts says he was woken up by detectives this morning who told him his son had passed away.

“I was wakened at 8:50 this morning by some detectives beating on my door. It’s always scary as a parent, they were in suits and that’s when they told me. They asked me if Matt Roberts was your son, I said yes, and they said ‘we have bad news to tell you, Matt deceased last night,’” Roberts said.

An autopsy is pending, but Roberts acknowledges that his son struggled with anxiety and an addiction to prescription drugs, even before he left 3 Doors Down.

“I know he had prescription drug addiction. He suffered greatly from anxiety. It’s crazy as a performer; he never liked crowds or liked places he didn’t know about as a baby, as a child, and this [drugs] was his way dealing with it and me and him talked about it often,” Roberts said, adding that Matt was not in treatment for his addiction but he thought Matt was doing much better. “I thought he had beaten it all.”

“I traveled quite a bit with him. He didn’t like to be without somebody he knew,” Roberts said.

Roberts plans to head home to his wife in the morning, but will stay another night in West Bend.

“I’m going to tell everybody here tonight. That’s what he would have liked, he put all this energy and effort to come out here to perform. I’ll put his guitar on stage and light it up and I’m going to say thanks to everybody and leave and go home in the morning,” Roberts said.

In addition to his father, Matt is survived by his mother, Ramona, his older brother Darrell, and two nieces. 

A receptionist at the Hampton Inn confirmed that Matt and Darrell Roberts were guests at the hotel and that there was police activity there this morning.