"Who knows if he died from all the drugs over the years or something else, " says keyboardist Josh Silver. "He was diagnosed with the condition years and years ago, but if you take care of yourself and do the right stuff it's something you can live with for quite a while. There are plenty of 90-year-olds running around with it. " Hickey adds, "He always said that he felt the flutter in his heart, even when he was a kid, so he might have been born with it for all we know. He's had four or five males in his family that have died from heart disease before 50, so it could have been congenital. Who knows? There is a price you pay for being so big, too. " 10 Unforgettable Peter Steele Moments Steel was 6 feet, 7 inches; he wasn't just large, he was larger than life. Though he claimed he was shy and suffered from stage fright, he eagerly embraced his role as spokesman for the band. As such, he had a deep voice and was surprisingly soft-spoken but had a razor-sharp wit and a hysterical, self-deprecating sense of humor.
He drove garbage trucks and snow ploughs and eventually became a supervisor before he had to quit his job in 1994 when Motley Crue asked Type O to join them on their summer tour. He even wrote the Bloody Kisses single "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)" while driving a garbage truck. "I was waiting in line for three hours to dump 40 cubic yards of human waste at the Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station, and I wrote the song in my head, " he told Revolver. "I'm not kidding you. " After Type O Negative broke out with 1993's Bloody Kisses, Steele's personal star also rose and he made notable appearances on some daytime talk shows and in Playgirl magazine that have gone down in metal history. (See more about those below. ) Beyond these moments of mainstream recognition, however, Steele was a respected and beloved member of the metal community who will forever be remembered for his candor about mental health, quick wit (he once said in an interview about Dead Again, "I went from playing in bars to behind bars — now I have gold, platinum and criminal records. ")