When I heard the news late last night about Cory Monteith being found dead in his Vancouver hotel room I was taken aback. No. Surely Not Finn Hudson?!? I instantly grabbed my iPhone and began scouring twitter and sure enough mixed in among the Zimmerman trial reaction there it was. A tweet from Kidd Kraddick that read "Glee star Cory Monteith found dead in hotel in Canada." I was stunned.

I feel at this point I have to admit that Glee is a show I watch regularly.  In fact ever since some of my female friends convinced me to give it a try it has been one of my favorites. This is a tough thing for me to admit considering I am an un-married 26 year-old straight man with no kids. I was in choir in high school, however, and Glee was everything I wish high school choir could have been... but I digress.

The news of Monteith's death came as a huge shock, but got me thinking about all of the other celebrities that left us way too soon. A rather extensive list that stretches way back to the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland. More recent stars that come to mind are Whitney Houston and Heath Ledger. I think that this tragedy most closely mirrors the shock and disbelief of Ledger. Both were very young and seemed to have the best years of their career's ahead of them. Both had been surrounded by some slight mentions of drug use and depression issues, but nothing that compared to the substance abuse of Whitney Houston or Michael Jackson. I think that might be why I was so moved by the news.

He was living in Victoria Canada as a Wal-Mart greeter when he decided to audition for Glee. His agent convinced him to audition by displaying not his vocal ability, but his talent on the drums. Drumming was really the only experience Monteith had ever had going in to his Glee audition, so he displayed his talents using pencils as drumsticks and Tupperware as a drum set. It impressed the producers of the show enough they called him out to L.A. for a second audition. Monteith packed up his car and drove from Victoria, Canada to L.A. memorizing Billy Joel's greatest hits so he would have a song to perform. That is how Cory Monteith became Finn Hudson.... Now all we can do is believe. Keep believing. Don't stop believin' that Cory, like so many other celebrities that left us too soon before him, is in a much better place.

More From 92.9 NiN