Last week, Rolling Stone published an extremely troubling bombshell exposé about the comedian and musician Reggie Watts. In that article, a number of loved ones came forward to suggest that Watts played a role in the suicide of his ex-girlfriend, 36-year-old Katherine Early McCollough. Some people who knew the couple claim that Watts encouraged McCollough to take a number of drugs, especially ketamine, which led McCollough to addiction, a manic episode, and ultimately death. Since the article's publication, some of Watts' bookings have been canceled, and the podcast Comedy Bang! Bang! has stopped using his theme song.
The 54-year-old Reggie Watts has been an inescapable figure on the music festival landscape for well over a decade. His improvised beatbox riff has served as the Comedy Bang! Bang! theme music since 2011, and he starred on the TV version of the podcast from 2012 to 2016. Starting in 2015, Watts also spent eight years as the bandleader on James Corden's Late Late Show. Watts reportedly met McCollough in 2023 and broke up with her a few months after she suffered a drug-induced manic episode last summer.
The Rolling Stone piece includes accounts from some of Watts' other ex-girlfriends, some of whom describe a pattern of pushing boundaries by encouraging drug use. Some of the article's details are truly harrowing, and they do not paint Watts in a good light. In the piece, Watts' lawyer argues that it's "dangerously false" to suggest that Watts was responsible for McCollough's suicide, characterizing her as "experienced drug user" who "did not need any so-called ‘encouragement’ from him."
As Rolling Stone reports, Watts has been dropped from the lineups of the UK festivals Shambala and Greenbelt, where he was scheduled to perform this week. A series of Bristol shows with frequent collaborators CAPYAC have also been canceled. Comedy Bang! Bang! has not made any comment about dropping Watts' theme music; it's simply absent from the latest episode. He's no longer listed on the website of the Irish festival Electric Picnic, either. Watts' website still lists a number of US dates that still appear to be happening, including a set at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
