Adam Goldstein dies at 36; club owner gained fame as DJ AM

The celebrity disc jockey and Los Angeles club owner known as DJ AM was found dead in a New York City apartment Friday afternoon, his publicist Jenni Weinman said in a statement.

“The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear. Out of respect for his family and loved ones, please respect their privacy at this time,” the statement said.

A New York law enforcement official told the Associated Press that drug paraphernalia was found at the apartment. There was no sign of foul play.

Adam Goldstein, 36, was famous as a jet set DJ who spun records at some of the world’s most exclusive parties, including private events for Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Stiller, among many others, and could command more than $25,000 for a three-hour set. A former member of the rock band Crazy Town, he grabbed tabloid headlines for having been engaged to socialite/reality TV star Nicole Richie and dating actress/singer Mandy Moore.

Goldstein was born in Philadelphia on March 30, 1973. Throughout his early 20s, he struggled with drugs, depression and his weight, which reached 300 pounds in the mid-1990s. In 1997, Goldstein said in interviews that he came close to killing himself. Instead, however, he gave up drugs and alcohol and underwent gastric bypass surgery, resulting in a drastic weight reduction. A longtime Los Angeles resident, he co-owned the Hollywood nightclub LAX and a partnership stake in the Atlantic City, N.J., club Dusk.

Goldstein’s death comes almost a year after he survived a fiery Learjet crash on the runway of a South Carolina airport that claimed the lives of two other passengers and left him covered with second- and third-degree burns. Travis Barker, Goldstein’s frequent collaborator and partner in the hip-hop-rock duo TRV$DJAM, also survived the crash.

Goldstein had been on the East Coast to throw out the first pitch at a New York Mets game at Citi Field, the team’s new home, on Aug. 23 and to perform at Dusk.

Last month, Goldstein announced his participation in a new reality TV show for MTV called “Gone Too Far.” The program followed Goldstein -- who battled addiction for 10 years -- as he helped the loved ones of drug addicts stage interventions.

At a news conference last month, Goldstein said he wanted to help others because he had escaped death twice as a former addict and crash survivor.

“There’s no reason why I should have lived or why I lived and they didn’t,” Goldstein said. “I’m alive and I’m here and I have another chance. So I have to do something better with my life this time.”

Goldstein was not married. Information on survivors was incomplete.

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Times staff writer Maria-Elena Fernandez contributed to this report.