Walk Off The Earth’s Mike Taylor, known as “Beard Guy” attends the announcement of the nominees for the Juno Awards at an event in Toronto on February 2, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Walk Off The Earth’s Mike Taylor, known as “Beard Guy” attends the announcement of the nominees for the Juno Awards at an event in Toronto on February 2, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Keyboardist for Canadian band Walk off the Earth, dies

They were to kick off a 2019 world tour with a New Year's Eve show in Niagara Falls on Monday night

The Burlington, Ont.-based band Walk off the Earth has announced the death of keyboardist and vocalist Mike Taylor.

In a post on various social media sites on Sunday, the band says Taylor died “peacefully from natural causes last night in his sleep.”

Taylor’s bandmates express their “deepest sympathies” for Taylor’s two children and ask for privacy for his family.

Walk off the Earth shot to fame in 2012 when their cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” went viral.

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A YouTube video for the song featured all five band members simultaneously playing a single guitar and singing in harmony.

Walk off the Earth was scheduled to kick off a 2019 world tour with a New Year’s Eve show in Niagara Falls, Ont., on Monday night.

A representative for the band says they won’t be performing, but the show itself — which also features The Sheepdogs and Burton Cummings — will go on.

The Canadian Press

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