Country Singer Luke Bell Dead at Age 32

Country singer Luke Bell has died at the age of 32, just one week after going missing during a trip to Arizona.

Bell’s close friend and fellow musician Matt Kinman confirmed the country singer’s death to the Saving Country Music blog on Monday, just one day after the blog reported that he had gone missing in Tucson, Arizona, on August 20.

“Luke Bell was found today, August 29th, 2022, not far from where he disappeared,” Saving Country Music wrote, adding that the singer had suffered from bipolar disorder.

An official cause of death has not yet been reported.

On Sunday, the blog reported that Bell’s friends were “raising concerns after he went missing” on August 20, and that the singer hadn’t “been seen or heard from since.”

“We came down here to Arizona, to work down here, play some music, and he just took off,” Kinman told Saving Country Music. “He was in the back of the truck. I went in to get something to eat. I came out, and he’d got out of the truck and left.”

This wasn’t the first time Bell had disappeared, the blog noted, adding that while the singer’s manager Brian Buchanan said Bell had been doing well for the last year and a half, there was a recent change in his medication, which Kinman fears could have played a role in his disappearance and ultimate demise.

After the news of Bell’s death, several of his peers shared their condolences on social media.

Country band Mike and the Moonpies also shared their sentiments in a Facebook post, writing, “we’re heartbroken over the news.”

“I can vividly remember the first time I met Luke at Hole in the Wall over a decade ago, down to the clothes on his back,” the band added. “The man (and his music) left an impression. He was a real deal traveling troubadour out there on that lost highway.”

Bell had earned critical acclaim after the release of his 2016 debut album, and was often compared to iconic country artists like Waylon Jennings, and went on to work with some of Nashville’s biggest names over the course of his career, according to a report by Us Weekly.

But despite his success, Bell quickly disappeared from the spotlight as he battled mental illness, the report added.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.