Paul Hardcastle has revealed the horrifying twist of fate that led to his son’s fatal motorbike crash.
Musician Paul, 68, announced his son, also named Paul, 35, had passed away in a heartbreaking Instagram post on Monday night.
Paul revealed his son had been running late for a flight to Greece but needed to pick up his saxophone from his dad’s house, and made the last minute to ride his motorbike – which was not road certified – there.
‘He went like, “I’ll get back to you in five minutes”,’ Paul said in an emotional Instagram video on Friday. ‘He didn’t get back to me in five minutes.’
Explaining the tragic set of circumstances which led to his son’s death, Paul began: ‘His car was taken to a car pound two nights before because he had a puncture that did something to the ball joints at the bottom of the car. They came and towed the car away.
‘So he went back to them the next day and said “oh I need to get my sax and some bits out” and for some reason they wouldn’t let him have his sax back. If they let him have his sax back this wouldn’t have happened. But they didn’t they said it was a courtesy car so we can’t let you have this.
Paul Hardcastle has revealed the horrifying twist of fate that led to his son’s fatal motorbike crash
Musician Paul, 68, announced his son, also named Paul, 35, had passed away in a heartbreaking Instagram post on Monday night (Pictured together)
‘He came home, he’s told me and I said “well look you haven’t got long, just get here as quick as you can to get your sax or maybe I’ll meet you halfway”.’
Paul continued: ‘What he had done is gone on the assumption, on his motorbike, his scrambler he could get across the fields and all the rest of it to my house in half the time that a taxi would. So he’s made that decision of doing that.
‘Look, at the end of the day the bike’s not supposed to be on the road and where he was seen, he was actually on a road, so I think it was an unmarked police car decided to chase him and Paul’s thinking “I’ve got to get my sax back” and just drove off, gone along and apparently he’s hit a blue van and people were around him, sort of trying to sort of help him and stuff but his breathing was very shallow.
‘I don’t know exactly when he passed away, but he did. So that is basically what happened. It was all to do with the fact of him missing a flight. Trying to get his sax, and he should have just got an Uber or whatever, but he thought this is going to take me half the time.’
Paul went on to speak about the moment the police knocked on his door to tell him his son had died, tearing up as he recalled the awful day.
He said: ‘I’ve lost a lovely son, and he’s lost his life, and could have easily all been avoided.
‘But that’s decisions. You make decisions, and if you make the wrong ones, then these are the things that can happen to you. So anyone out there that’s thinking, “oh, I’ll just do this. I’ll just do that”. It’s just not worth it.
‘Because when you get that knock on the door, and I felt sorry for the policeman, actually, there’s two of them and they was nice. And they said “Do you mind if we come in? We’ve got some news”. I said “Okay”. [They replied] “We’re very, we’re very, very, very sorry to tell you that your son’s been involved in an accident and he’s passed away.’
‘He went like, “I’ll get back to you in five minutes”,’ Paul began in an Instagram video on Friday. ‘He didn’t get back to me in five minutes’
Paul Sr first shared the tragic news about his son with a heartbreaking Instagram post alongside a childhood photo of him
Paul teared up as he continued: ‘When you hear that, wow, nothing’s worth doing it for.
‘So anyone out there thinking along them lines, don’t bother. It’s just not worth it. Cancel the gig. Do something else. I don’t know whatever you want to do, but don’t do that, because it really that the odds, I won’t say the odds are set against you, but the odds, when they come up, then they can be really brutal, and that’s what’s happened.
‘So rest in peace Paul Jr, love dad.’
Paul revealed his son Paul Jnr had decided to make a journey to his dad’s on his scrambler motorbike due to there being a puncture on his car.
But Paul Snr claimed the motorbike was not meant to be on the road, hence why his son had been briefly tailed by a police bar before the fatal crash.
Paul Sr first shared the tragic news about his son with a heartbreaking Instagram post alongside a childhood photo of him.
The singer, composer and producer 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 Jnr was also a musician and was known for playing the saxophone and DJing.
The singer, composer and producer wrote: ‘Just to let you know that my super talented son Paul Hardcastle Jnr was in a fatal motorcycle accident’
Police confirmed earlier this week that Paul Jnr was killed in a motorcycle crash after failing to stop for the police.
Officers pursued a motorbike on Monday in Ongar, Essex, after it failed to stop, police said.
The bike was involved in crash with a van and police said the driver of the motorbike, a man in his 30s, tragically died at the scene.
The driver of the van was arrested in connection with the incident and released under investigation.
Essex Police have said the incident had been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who have confirmed that it will carry out an independent investigation into the tragedy.
He starred on his father’s 2008 Hardcastle 5, which was released in 2008 and appeared on the final track from the record, Take 1. He also worked on the 2022 release, Hardcastle X.
Paul Sr, is perhaps best known known for his 1985 hit about soldiers in the Vietnam War, 19, which reached number one in the charts for five weeks.
