Kevin Anderson was happily stuck in the 80s.

He collected CDs of his favorite bands from that era: Metallica, Def Leppard and Great White.

"We used to go to the pawn shops and Wal-Mart and buy them," said Anderson's friend, Dave Penny.

Anderson, 37, of Warwick, was so into the 1980s that he dressed from that period and wore his hair long.

"One night he was in a club and a guy came up to him and said 'You ought to get out of the '80s,"' Lori Jacques, a former girlfriend, told The Providence Journal. "My kids called him 'Uncle Dude."'

Anderson also loved his white Chevrolet Corsica. "You could eat off the inside of that car," said his sister, Sue Sylvia.

Anderson was on a crew that cleaned air ducts in restaurants, but he had to leave that work because of a heart ailment.

He also had moved into an apartment and was fixing it up so he and his 11-year-old son could get together to listen to music and play video games.