double rainbow guy paul vasquez rip

"Double Rainbow" guy Paul Vasquez, RIP

Paul “Bear” Vasquez, aka the “Double Rainbow Guy,” died on Saturday (5/9) in Mariposa, CA at age 57, reports The Modesto Bee. Cause of death is unknown at this time, but Vasquez had posted on his Facebook that he had gone to get tested for COVID-19, adding he didn’t think he had it but was worried that “something else is going on” with him.

Having been a firefighter in Los Angeles, Vasquez moved to Yosemite, CA in 1985 where he worked at the national park, and also spent time as a cage fighter and truck driver. In Yosemite, he lived simply, growing his own vegetables (and marijuana), “When you live alone like this, you connect to nature on a deeper level,” he told CNN back in 2010. “When you can yell at the top of your lungs and no one cares or knows, it gives you a type of freedom that most people have no understanding of.”

Vasquez became a YouTube star when his 2010 video of a twin rainbow — and his ecstatic description of it — went viral. He appeared on talk shows and The Gregory Brothers then turned his video into an auto-tuned pop song that furthered his viral fame. The Gregory Brothers wrote, “He was the spiritual hero behind the Double Rainbow video. He gave joy & wonder to so many. And he was right: We’ll never look at a rainbow again and not think about him. That’s just the way it is.”

Rest in peace, Paul. Watch his original “Double Rainbow” video and The Gregory Brothers remix, below.