Leroy 'Sugarfoot' Bonner, Frontman Of The Ohio Players, Dies
He was not on the list.
Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, leader of the funk band the Ohio Players, has died at the age of 69. No cause of death has yet been reported.
The Ohio Players had seven Top 40 hits in the 1970s, including "Love Rollercoaster," "Fire" and "Skin Tight," and helped define a movement that included Parliament Funkadelic and Kool & the Gang. The band's success stemmed partly from Bonner's playfully commanding lead vocals and gusto.
The oldest of 14 children, Bonner ran away from home as a young teenager and played the harmonica on street corners for change. A few years before he died, he took to his Twitter the night that a documentary about his band was broadcast on television.
"I am happy doing what I love," he wrote. "This IS pure heaven. The fans out there are like family to me. Every night is like a homecoming."
The band's lineup changed over the years, but its instrumentation and sound remained basically the same: a solid, driving groove provided by guitar, keyboards, bass and drums, punctuated by staccato blasts from a horn section.
Assisted by Roger Troutman and his Zapp brethren, Sugarfoot went solo in 1985 with Sugar Kiss—the same year Zapp released The New Zapp IV U (featuring "Computer Love"), while Shirley Murdock was on the verge of scoring with the Troutman-produced "As We Lay".
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