Matt Lee, a vital and beloved fixture of the Detroit music scene, was found dead at his condominium in Southfield on Thursday, June 18. He was 68.
Lee was found after friends called police for a welfare check when he had failed to return texts and phone calls for two days. The cause of death is unknown, and the Southfield Police Department declined to provide additional details Thursday evening.
Lee was a gregarious, likable character who served a variety of roles during his decades in local music: rock band leader, horn arranger for the Four Tops, record store manager and — most notably in recent years — publicist for a host of area musicians, events and restaurants.
His passing was confirmed by David Lee, his twin brother and a prominent Detroit criminal defense attorney.
For Lee, promoting the culture of Detroit was a passion project.
“No one loved the music more. No one loved Detroit more,” said David Lee. “Everybody loved Matt, and he cared about everybody.”
Matty, as he was known to friends at home and across the country, was a walking fount of music knowledge, a guy who could summon obscure names, credits and connections at a moment’s notice.
His musical passions ran strong and his expertise was diverse — rock, blues, jazz, R&B and especially Detroit history — while his devotion to Bruce Springsteen led him to 100-plus Boss concerts over the years.
Lee was born in 1958 in Detroit and graduated from Southfield High School in 1976, by which time he was performing with local groups. A self-taught guitarist, he led the Detroit rock-soul band the Suspects in the 1980s.
After a 1990s stint in New York, where he worked in music merchandising, Lee returned home, where area music aficionados came to know him as a familiar and trusted face at the Royal Oak shop Off the Record.
Lee then stepped into his next career chapter as an independent publicist, representing myriad local bands, singer-songwriters and events such as the Detroit Jazz Festival. In his work, he approached his role less as a commercial pitch man than an invested artist himself.
“He marveled that he was able to make a career in music,” his brother said. “He didn’t know what else he could do with his life.”
In later years, Lee was best known as the media liaison for many metro Detroit restaurants and other food operations, with notable recent clients that included Dutch Girl Donuts, the Dakota Inn Rathskeller and Prince Valley Market.
In 2014, while marking the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ groundbreaking appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Lee recounted to the Free Press how that night changed his life — and sent him on a musical quest that would define the rest of his life.
“Who realized how fast things would go after that — how quickly they would change and the world would change?” Lee said. “Things just sped up after that.”
Memorial and funeral plans are pending.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Matt Lee, well-known part of Detroit music scene, dies at 68
Reporting by Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
