Chandler Riggs Pursuing Career In Music After ‘The Walking Dead’

Former The Walking Dead star Chandler Riggs is turning his eyes towards the music industry.

The 18-year-old actor, who released his first song in December under the Eclipse name, recently relocated from Georgia to Los Angeles, where he’ll be able to better pursue his musical interests.

“I’m actually producing music kind of on the side, and I’m starting to play some shows and things like that,” Riggs tells KTLA 5. “I’m doing that and acting, it’s quite a lot to juggle but it’s a lot of fun.”

Riggs, who continues to drop original tracks on Spotify and iTunes, says his music is “really what I’m passionate about and love to do.”

“I produce electronic kind of music, like EDM kind of stuff,” as Riggs puts it. “Acting is awesome, but I’m really, really able to express myself creatively in music.”

Sunday’s mid-season return of The Walking Dead saw Riggs’ longtime character, Carl Grimes, succumb to a fever brought on by a fatal walker bite. Out of options, Carl shoots himself within the scorched walls of Alexandria’s church.

AMC paid tribute to Riggs and Carl with a touching farewell video, featuring appearances from Riggs’ Walking Dead co-stars, including Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira.

“I want to personally say thank you to all the fans of this show and to everyone that’s grown up with Carl,” Riggs tells fans in the featurette. “It’s been awesome.”

Riggs told ComicBook.com he’s okay with being off the show, telling us, “I’ve actually loved my time on the show, I don’t regret any of it ever.”

“It was definitely the best experience that I could ever ask for,” Riggs said. “I’m okay with being off the show, it was definitely an experience that I’ll never forget.”

In an interview with ET Live, Riggs admitted he was blindsided by Carl’s death: he received the news during rehearsals for episode 8×06, which sees Carl receive his incurable walker bite.

Despite his time with the series coming to an abrupt end after eight years, Riggs feels it “just kind of made sense” for Carl’s death to happen, “for the story and everyone else’s story.”

“Especially for my career, too,” he said. “It really sucked to be off the show, but I had such a great time, it was really, really awesome. Eight years, its definitely an experience I don’t regret.”

Riggs has already booked crime thriller Inherit the Viper, where he’ll star alongside Josh Hartnett and Bruce Dern.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.