[2] Adopting the moniker Colonel Hampton B. Coles, Retired or alternatively Col. Bruce Hampton Ret., and sometimes playing a sort of dwarf guitar called a "chazoid",[3][4] he later formed several other bands, some of whose names include The Late Bronze Age, The Aquarium Rescue Unit, The Fiji Mariners, The Codetalkers, The Quark Alliance, Pharaoh Gummitt, and Madrid Express.

is the jazz-rock outfit Aquarium Rescue Unit, which featured improvisational music all-stars Oteil Burbridge, Jimmy Herring, Rev.

[15] In 2014, Hampton made a cameo in the music video for rap group Run The Jewels' single "Blockbuster Night, Pt.

[16] 2015 saw the production of Here Comes Rusty in which Hampton portrayed the lead character, Dicky, alongside co-stars Fred Willard, Joey Lauren Adams and Brandon Niederauer.

Dubbed Hampton 70: A Celebration of Col. Bruce Hampton, it was an all-star concert featuring Widespread Panic members John Bell, Dave Schools, Duane Trucks, and Jimmy Herring; blues guitarist Tinsley Ellis; Peter Buck of R.E.M; steel guitarist Darick Campbell; saxophone player Karl Denson; Drew Emmitt and Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon; Jon Fishman of Phish; banjo player Rev.

Jeff Mosier of Blueground Undergrass; guitarist Warren Haynes; Drivin N Cryin frontman Kevn Kinney; Atlanta jazz-staple Johnny Knapp; Chuck Leavell; Athens rock-troubadour T. Hardy Morris; 13-year-old guitar prodigy Brandon Niederauer; slide guitarist Derek Trucks and blues singer Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band; John Popper of Blues Traveler; funk bassist Kevin Scott; keyboardist Matt Slocum; Denny Walley of Frank Zappa fame; gypsy-metal guitarist Emil Werstler; Oliver Wood of The Wood Brothers; and MLB pitcher Jake Peavy.

[18][19] Onlookers and his fellow musicians initially either did not notice that Hampton had collapsed, or thought it was a ruse due to his history of falling down onstage during performances and other practical jokes.

The band played for several minutes before Hampton was taken offstage; he died shortly thereafter at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta, Georgia.