(May 30, 2026) He was a quiet, but key, member of one of the great bands our lives, laying down the funkiest of bass lines. Today we say a sad goodbye to Ronald LaPread, co-founding member of the legendary Motown group The Commodores. He was 75.
LaPread was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and attended Tuskegee Institute, where The Commodores group was formed. Initially consisting of Lionel Richie on saxophone, Walter Orange on drums, William King on trumpet, Milan Williams (who died in July 2006) on keyboards, Thomas McClary on guitar, and LaPread on bass, the talented, self-contained funk band found success principally playing local gigs in Alabama before scoring a major coup by successfully auditioning to serve as the warm-up band for the Jackson Five’s 1971 tour.
The tour gave the group broad national attention and led to their signing with Motown. Their first release, 1974’s Machine Gun, was a pure funk disc led off by the scorching instrumental title cut, which hit the top 10 on the Soul charts. The Commodores’ sound was tight and funky and gave no indication of the mellower balladry for which they would later be known. They followed in the next year with the equally strong Caught In The Act and Movin On, the latter of which included their first substantial crossover cut, “Sweet Love.” They scored again in 1976 with the equally strong ballad, “Just to Be Close To You.”
1977 would bring the group’s definitive album, the self-titled Commodores, and their two biggest hits to date, the beautiful “Easy” and a suggestive dance/funk favorite, “Brick House.” It also featured the quiet storm staple, “Zoom,” which sadly represented a pivotal time for LaPread. As the band was working on the album, LaPread’s wife Cathy repeatedly complained of stomach pain. Her doctors suggested exploratory surgery. LaPread later wrote, “At 9:30, I was expecting her to come out of the operating room. 9:30 came and went; 10:30 came and went; at 11:30 she was still in there. I missed two planes but wasn’t leaving. About 12:10PM the doctor came out and told me that she had massive tumors in her womb. He gave her about two months to live. She was 23 years old.”
Devastated, LaPread began expressing his feelings in a song that would go on to become a classic:
I may be just a foolish dreamer, But I don’t care.
‘Cause I know my happiness is waiting out there somewhere.”
Richie finished the lyrics of “Zoom,” and it became an anchor for the Commodores album and one of the group’s most heralded ballads. Sadly, Cathy LaPread died soon after its release. (Read the full story of “Zoom” here).
The Commodores continued to rise to supergroup status over the next several years, with gold and platinum albums and such chart-topping hits as “Three Times A Lady,” “Still,” “Sail On,” and “Oh No,” before Richie left for a solo career in 1982.
When Richie departed in 1982 to record his eponymous debut, the Commodores were given up for dead by much of the music world. But, with new singer J.D. Nicholas (a latter day member of Heatwave) onboard, they confounded critics by recording a Walter Orange co-composition that became one of their biggest hits ever. “Nightshift,” a musical tribute to Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye and other deceased soul greats, was a deserving smash, spending 4 weeks at the top of the charts and winning for the group a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance.
LaPread left The Commodores after the Nightshift album, and relocated to New Zealand, where he continued to perform for the next several decades, including leading an eight-piece house band on the television show Mike King Tonight in the early 2000s.
Though he was one of the more understated members of the group, Ronald LaPread played a key role in establishing The Commodores as soul music royalty, and his work will be celebrated for years to come. May he rest in peace.
By Chris Rizik
