Phil Buerstatte, who played drums for White Zombie between 1992 to1994, was found dead over the weekend in Wisconsin. No details have yet to be released of how he died. He was 44.
Buerstatte was a key member during the bands La Sexorcisto tour but never recorded anything with them. Before his White Zombie tenure, he played drums for Wisconsin groove prog metal band Last Crack from 1986 and stayed with them until 1997.
Paul Schluter, guitarist with Last Crack released the following statement:
“We are sorry to have to announce that Last Crack drummer and our musical brother Phil Buerstatte has passed away today. He will be greatly missed by his many friends, family and fellow band members. Pull out your Last Crack albums, crank them up loud and remember what a great drummer he was!
“It is the end of an era for us and sad to say the original lineup will never be able to play together again. Our last show with Phil from 2009 is posted on YouTube in its entirety. The remaining members of the band are discussing doing a tribute show in Phil’s honor in the coming months. We’ll post details soon.”
Strangely, the last time Buerstatte was in the headlines was last year, when a man was arrested for fraud for impersonating the drummer and trying to get out of paying for his re-hab treatment at the Alta Mira Recovery Center, a luxury facility in San Francisco.
The man, who used a $75,000 cheque in Buerstatte’s name to pay for the treatment had previously attempted this many times. Police at the time were trying to determine if in fact it was Buerstatte actually using an alias, but soon determined it was someone else pretending to be him.
