Faster Pussycat singer Taime Downe has opened up for the first time about the tragic death of fiancée Kimberly Burch, 56, who was presumed dead in March after what officials believe was a fall from a cruise ship. Speaking to Eddie Trunk on his SiriusXM Faction talk show on Friday, Downe, 60, said the past few months have been a “roller coaster.”
According to Blabbermouth, Downe talked about missing Burch and attempting to heal on the band’s current U.S. tour. “I’m hanging in there. I’m just taking it a day at a time. And everybody thought going out on the road and doing what I do and being with my family in my band would be good for me,” he said. “So I’ve taken their advice and [I’m] doing this. We’re going out with some cool bands,” he added of support from Vain, the Supersuckers, The Rumours and The Lonely Ones.
“I think it’ll be therapeutic, and [I’ll] get to see a bunch of fans and a bunch of friends across the country,” Downe said. “So I think it’ll be helpful… this is just heavy s–t, and I’m just looking forward to playing shows and having fun.”
Asked if he’d rather not talk about Burch’s death, Downe said it’s fine to ask him and “it’s good to talk about it with my friends, my close-knit friends. But I don’t really wanna talk about it with strangers, ’cause it doesn’t seem appropriate. It is what it is.”
Reacting to concerns that Burch’s tragic death might impact his sobriety, Downe said there’s no chance he’d start drinking again after suffering such a tragic loss. “What happened with Kimberly too, it was alcohol and prescription related,” he said. “So I blame alcohol and pills on it. There’s no way I’d touch booze. For me, that’s just completely disgusting in my brain, you know what I mean? So I’ve got some hatred for booze, ’cause I loved the hell out of Kimberly, and it was just hard to deal with. We spent basically nine years together.”
According to reports, Burch died after going overboard on the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas on the first night of the 80s Cruise, which, in addition to 1980s glam rock stalwarts Faster Pussycat, featured sets from Warrant, Dokken, Firehouse, Squeeze, Adam Ant, Tiffany and Men at Work. Officials launched a search operation, but Burch’s body was never found. A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson said the ship was around 20 miles from Freeport, Bahamas when the incident took place.
Shortly after the incident, The Hollywood Reporter reported that security footage appeared to show Burch jumping overboard, with Nassau police clearing Downe of any wrongdoing.