Drugs suspected in death of Brit singer’s husband

LONDON – Jason Rae, musician husband of Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae, has been found dead of a suspected drugs overdose, police said on Sunday.

“At 3:15 pm (1515 GMT) yesterday (Saturday) … police were called to a flat in the Hyde Park area of Leeds, where they found the body of a 31-year-old man,” a West Yorkshire Police spokesman said, later identifying him as Rae.A 32-year-old man was arrested “on suspicion of supplying controlled drugs” but was later released on police bail.A post-mortem on Saturday proved inconclusive, the spokesman said, adding that police now were awaiting the results of toxicology tests.Rae, a saxophonist with the Haggis Horns, an eight-piece funk band in Leeds, was due to play at a now-cancelled concert on Sunday evening with the group at a local club.He met Bailey Rae (29) while she was working as a cloakroom attendant at a jazz club in the northern English city.The couple married in 2001.She said in a May 2006 interview with the Observer newspaper that she had never tried drugs, telling the newspaper: “I’m not interested in manufacturing a high in an attempt to have a good time.It’s not really a good time, is it?” Bailey Rae has won several British music awards, and has been nominated for three Grammys in two years, after hitting the spotlight in 2006 with her self-titled debut album, which topped the British charts and sold more than one million copies in the United States.Nampa-AFPpolice were called to a flat in the Hyde Park area of Leeds, where they found the body of a 31-year-old man,” a West Yorkshire Police spokesman said, later identifying him as Rae.A 32-year-old man was arrested “on suspicion of supplying controlled drugs” but was later released on police bail.A post-mortem on Saturday proved inconclusive, the spokesman said, adding that police now were awaiting the results of toxicology tests.Rae, a saxophonist with the Haggis Horns, an eight-piece funk band in Leeds, was due to play at a now-cancelled concert on Sunday evening with the group at a local club.He met Bailey Rae (29) while she was working as a cloakroom attendant at a jazz club in the northern English city.The couple married in 2001.She said in a May 2006 interview with the Observer newspaper that she had never tried drugs, telling the newspaper: “I’m not interested in manufacturing a high in an attempt to have a good time.It’s not really a good time, is it?” Bailey Rae has won several British music awards, and has been nominated for three Grammys in two years, after hitting the spotlight in 2006 with her self-titled debut album, which topped the British charts and sold more than one million copies in the United States.Nampa-AFP