Denver musician Rick Kulwicki, best known as guitarist for Sub Pop recording artists the Fluid, died Tuesday. He was 49. The cause remains under investigation.
“Everybody who he touched went away with a positive feeling,” said Arnie Beckman, a close friend and bandmate to Kulwicki. “Everybody who encountered him loved him. You hear that a lot when people pass away, but in Rick’s case, it’s not exaggeration.”
Kulwicki is survived by his two teenage sons — he was a single father — two sisters and his mother.
In recent years, Kulwicki played guitar and hosted practices for the Buckingham Squares, and Beckman played bass for the Denver band.
Beckman knew something was amiss when he showed up for band practice at Kul wicki’s house Tuesday about 6 p.m. and found paramedics on the scene. As of Wednesday afternoon, Beckman said, the cause of death was unknown.
News of Kulwicki’s death spread Wednesday on Facebook and message boards, with friends, fans and bandmates lamenting the loss of a man as kind a person as he was ferocious on the guitar.
“Rick was a person of impeccable integrity,” said Fluid frontman John Robinson, a friend of Kulwicki’s for decades. “If you ever needed an example of how to live your life, you only had to look at how Rick conducted his.”
Bart Dahl helped manage the Fluid through the band’s recent reunions, including a triumphant return at the Bluebird Theater in 2008.
“I’ve never met his equal for pure sunshine and happiness and positivity,” Dahl said. “He was just a magical character — an ambassador of goodwill.”
Ronnie Crawford was a bartender at 7 South, the revered, now-closed Denver rock club that helped the Fluid and many others find their feet in the 1980s and ’90s.
“He was a dad and a musician and a compassionate guy,” Crawford said. “His boys have their own band. They were guitar techs when the Fluid would play.”
Friends gathered informally at the Skylark Lounge on Wednesday evening to mourn together. Further memorial plans will be announced on the Buckingham Squares’ Facebook page.
Online.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@ ; @RVRB on Twitter
