Clyde Stubblefield, the drummer who provided the backbeat for a generation, died Saturday at the age of 73. As the drummer for James Brown’s band, Stubblefield laid the groundwork for funk and inadvertently created the most sampled track of all time. The drummer’s wife, Jody Hannon, confirmed his death from kidney failure.
Stubblefield’s resume as Brown’s drummer includes classic tracks such as “Cold Sweat,” “Say it Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud,” “I Got the Feeling,” “Sex Machine” and the track that gave him his notoriety, “Funky Drummer.”
He was a funky drummer. The brief interlude in “Funky Drummer” provided the beat that launched a thousand hip-hop acts. The track was sampled by the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run DMC, N.W.A., LL Cool J and even George Michael. Unfortunately, Stubblefield never saw any royalties from any of these uses of his most famous piece as he was not listed as a songwriter on the track.
Roots drummer Questlove proclaimed Stubblefield, “The Funky Funkiest Drummer of All Time” in a tribute on Instagram Saturday
Stubblefield was born in Chattanooga, TN on April 18, 1943, influenced by the factory sounds and the rhythm of the trains near his home. He went on to briefly perform with Otis Redding before being introduced to Brown, joining his band in 1965.
Following his career with Brown’s band, Stubblefield relocated to Madison, WI, performing weekly Monday night gigs with his Clyde Stubblefield Band, a band that included long-time friend Steve “Doc” Skaggs on keyboards and vocalists Charlie Brooks and Karri Daley. He maintained this schedule until health problems sidelined him in 2011.
Over the years, Stubblefield performed with Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the JBs and frequently collaborated with fellow Brown band drummer John “Jabo” Starks as the Funkmasters.
Stubblefield battled kidney problems and bladder cancer since 2000. Due to his lack of health insurance, paying for the procedures proved difficult. Following Prince’s death last year, Stubblefield revealed that Prince had secretly paid his nearly $90,000 in medical bills in full. Prince and Stubblefield had never met but Prince considered the funky drummer one of his idols.
Check out the 1999 video below, where Stubblefield discusses his style and jams with John Medeski on keys, Fred Thomas on bass, Fred Wesley on trombone and John Scofield on guitar:
Butch Trucks, founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, died on the evening of Tuesday, January 24 in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 69 years old.
Born Claude Hudson Trucks on May 11, 1947 in Jacksonville, Florida, Butch refined his craft playing in several ensembles at Florida State University and in the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra before cutting his rock ‘n roll teeth in local bands such as the Vikings, the Echoes, and the Bitter Ind.
It was the suggestion of Jai “Jaimoe” Johnny Johanson that led Duane Allman to recruit Trucks into the fold back in 1964 as he was forming the original Allman Brothers Band. Jaimoe and Trucks would go on to play drums alongside one another on and off for 46 years as members of the Brothers. Trucks is the third member of the original ABB lineup to pass away, joining Duane Allman, who died in 1971, and Berry Oakley, who died the next year. Trucks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Allman Brothers Band in 1994.
The cause of death is unknown and comes as a surprise, as Trucks had remained active on the music scene of late. Upon the Allman Brothers Band breakup in 2014, Trucks founded Les Brers with fellow former Allmans Jaimoe, Marc Quiñones, Oteil Burbridge, and Jack Pearson in an effort to keep the ABB catalog alive. His latest act, Butch Trucks and the Freight Train Band, had recently been touring in the southeast.
Trucks is survived by his wife Melinda, four children, and four grandchildren, plus a number of family members who are active musicians in their own right, nephews Derek and Duane Trucks, the guitarist of Tedeschi-Trucks Band and drummer of Widespread Panic/Hard Working Americans respectively, and his son Vaylor Trucks, who plays with the Yeti Trio.
At this time the Trucks and Allman Brothers Band families request “friends and fans to please respect our privacy at this time of sadness for our loss. Butch will play on in our hearts forever.”
Check out footage of Butch discussing the early days of the Allman Brothers Band below.