San Diego music scene mourns bright light killed in Balboa Park motorcycle crash

Multi-San Diego Music Award winner Tim Lowman, the one-man dirty-blues band known to his fans as Low Volts, was killed early Sunday in a crash in Balboa Park.

Word spread rapidly on Sunday and, as 91x was set to air its Sunday night local-music Loudspeaker show, the program’s hosts announced they would devote the show to the passing of the 51-year-old singer, who was also a member of The Blackout Party, another local music-award-winning act.

According to San Diego police, Lowman’s motorcycle and an SUV collided in the 2000 block Pershing Drive at about 1:40 a.m., and a woman passing by called 911. Despite a rapid response by first responders, Lowman died at the scene.

A cause for the crash, which appears to have taken place on a straight section of road, has not yet been identified by police.

Lowman was a much-loved fixture on the local music scene, regularly spotted at the Casbah in his distinctive flat-brimmed black hat and leather jacket, or on the San Diego street festival circuit, where he would appear with his distinctive double-lightning-bolt bedazzled bass drum and slide guitar. NBC 7’s music platform, SoundDiego, hosted Lowman on several occasions over the years, including when he performed at North Park’s Seven Grand bar for a SoundDiego LIVE event with his percussionists/dancers/backup vocalists, the Killowatts.

One of Lowman’s professional high-water marks came in 2011, when Low Volts took home SDMA statuettes for Best New Artist as well as Best Blues Album. That same evening at Humphrey’s By the Bay, Lowman was on the receiving end of The Blackout Party’s award for Best Americana.

Lowman left San Diego for a time during the 20-teens, moving to Nashville, where, again, his unique talent stood out, at one time opening for the Stray Cats Bryan Setzer at the Ryman Auditorium and touring with him as well.

In the early 2020s, Lowman married another local music standout, Dani Bell, who has recently been touring as the bass player with Portugal. The Man, making appearances with them at Coachella and in Europe. Lowman, too, had recently seen success overseas, posting on social media just last week from Hamburg, Germany, where he said he had recently completed his third tour of Europe of 2025.

The couple was married in dramatic fashion in September 2022, with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons officiating the service at the Embarcadero Marina Park North. According to a report, longtime San Diego music scene fixture Tim Pyles started the connections that eventually led to the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who was in town with his band to perform at the San Diego Blues Festival.

Tributes to Lowman blanketed social media since his death. “Gutted” was a reaction many shared.

“He was a true talent, a beautiful friend and a kind soul,” Loudspeaker co-host Timothy Joseph posted. “San Diego has lost another precious son. We will always remember.”

“So sad to hear of Tim Lowman’s death,” posted Deadbolt bassist Gary Burns. “He was truly one of a kind, one-man band. His bluesy psycho-delic swampy sonic assault as the Low Volts was awesome, and he was just a down-to-earth guy.”

“Tim is so much more than a musical brother in our community — he is my friend and my neighbor, and I can’t even speak about him in the past tense right now,” local music fixture Drew Douglas posted.

Bell posted as well, asking on Monday for “a bit of space to process with family.” She asked for friends and family, rather than texting the family and loved ones at this time, to “email memories, thoughts, videos, songs, etc. to marlowlowman@gmail.com” as a way to permanently store them for their toddler daughter “as she gets older.”

The San Diego Police Department is investigating the cause of the crash.

“Currently, there is no information regarding what led up to the accident,” SDPD spokesman Colin Steinbroner told NBC 7 on Monday, “but the [SUV] driver remained on scene to speak with officers, and no arrests have been made at this time in relation to the collision.”

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