Renowned musician Paul Hardcastle has shared the devastating details of his final conversation with his son, which occurred just minutes before the young man's life was cut short in a tragic road accident.
A Father's Heartbreaking Account
The 68-year-old composer, best known for his 1985 hit '19', revealed in an emotional Instagram video that he spoke to his 35-year-old son, Paul Hardcastle Jr., on the phone shortly before the fatal incident. The younger Hardcastle was running late for a flight to Greece but needed to collect his saxophone from his father's house.
"He went like, 'I'll get back to you in five minutes'," the grieving father recounted. "He didn't get back to me in five minutes." Instead, the musician was soon confronted by two police officers at his door with the worst possible news.
The Tragic Sequence of Events
Paul Hardcastle Sr. explained that his son had decided to make the journey to his house on a scrambler motorbike because his car had a puncture. The father claimed the motorbike was not legally meant to be on the road. This decision set in motion a tragic chain of events.
Essex Police confirmed that on Monday, officers attempted to stop a motorbike in Ongar, Essex, after it failed to stop. The bike was subsequently involved in a collision with a van. The rider, a man in his 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the van was arrested and released under investigation.
The incident has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which has confirmed it will carry out an independent investigation.
A Father's Public Grief and Warning
Fighting back tears in his video, Hardcastle described the moment the police delivered the news. "I've lost a lovely son, and he's lost his life, and could have easily all been avoided," he said. He issued a stark warning to others, urging them to think twice before taking risks.
"So anyone out there that's thinking, 'oh, I'll just do this. I'll just do that'. It's just not worth it," he pleaded. "Cancel the gig. Do something else... but don't do that, because the odds, when they come up, then they can be really brutal."
The musician first announced his son's death in a heartbreaking Instagram post on Monday night, alongside a childhood photo. He wrote: "Just to let you know that my super talented son Paul Hardcastle Jnr was in a fatal motorcycle accident earlier and has sadly died. RIP son love Dad."
Paul Hardcastle Jr. was also a musician, known for playing the saxophone and DJing. He had contributed to his father's work, featuring on the 2008 album 'Hardcastle 5' and the 2022 release 'Hardcastle X'.
