Training as an engineer at the Tuskegee Institute, LaPread answered an advertisement to join the Commodores when the band\u2019s original bassist, Michael Gilbert, was drafted to the Vietnam War late in 1969. Famously claiming he was \u201cthe best bassist in town\u201d, LaPread got the gig despite never having previously played a bass guitar. <\/p>\n
A keyboardist and prior member of his high school marching band, if anything, LaPread\u2019s boast would prove modest. A quick study, within months he would find himself opening for the Jackson 5 at the peak of their mania at Madison Square Garden, and rubbing shoulders with luminaries like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe. <\/p>\n
For several years the Commodores toured with the Jackson brothers, with LaPread forming a lifelong connection with Michael Jackson.<\/p>\n
The Commodores. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Always a popular live attraction with their synchronised choreography and elaborate costumes, the self-contained Commodores established themselves as chart regulars with early hits like Machine Gun (1974, US No 22), Slippery When Wet (1975, US No 19), Sweet Love (US No 5, 1975), Just To Be Close To You (US No 7, 1976) and LaPread\u2019s own Fancy Dancer (US No 39, 1976). But it was the band\u2019s self-titled fifth album in 1977 that shot them into the A-leagues with a seamless blend of blistering funk and soulful balladry. LaPread\u2019s contributions as songwriter to the album \u2013 Brick House and the spiritually-themed Zoom \u2013 are held aloft as R&B classics to this day.<\/p>\n
The global hits \u2013 among them Too Hot Ta Trot (US No 24, 1978), Sail On (US No 4, 1979), and On No (US No 4, 1981) \u2013 continued, but the 1982 departure of the Commodores\u2019 breakout star, future Rock & Roll and Songwriters Hall Of Fame member Lionel Richie, signalled a shift in commercial fortunes. Sensing he was also nearing the end of his tenure, the Nightshift album and its Grammy-winning title-track (US No 3, 1985) restored the band to the upper reaches of the charts one last time and proved a fitting farewell for LaPread.<\/p>\n
On his final Commodores tour in 1986, LaPread fell in love with the woman who became his wife, Farideh, on a flight from Sydney to Auckland. Settling in Auckland, they raised two children together, Mark and Soraya.<\/p>\n
A champion of up-and-coming local New Zealand artists (many of whom recorded in his purpose-built home studio), LaPread was also a mainstay of the local live music scene. In more recent years he found great joy in making regular guest concert appearances with Richie with whom he remained close. And in October last year, LaPread came full circle by reuniting with the Commodores for the first time in decades at an emotional, sold-out Aotea Centre in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Richie spoke fondly of LaPread in his 2025 best-selling memoir, Truly, hailing him as the \u201cbest-natured human you\u2019d be lucky to know\u201d and \u201cmy bassist for life\u201d. <\/p>\n
The Commodores are estimated to have sold in excess of 70 million records. They had 17 US top 40 singles, seven R&B No 1s, two pop No 1s and were nominated for 10 Grammy awards.<\/p>\n
Ronald LaPread is survived by his wife Farideh, and his children Ronald Junior (US), Soraya and Mark. He was 75.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Training as an engineer at the Tuskegee Institute, LaPread answered an advertisement to join the Commodores when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85710,18919,51,66428,231658,6179,156,2740,30809,78,231659,159433,231660,111,139,69,3868,22769,1534,23333,1299],"class_list":["post-455860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-85710","tag-aged","tag-auckland","tag-bassist","tag-commodores","tag-died","tag-entertainment","tag-former","tag-grammywinning","tag-in","tag-lapread","tag-motown","tag-multimillionselling","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-obituary","tag-ronald","tag-saturday","tag-suddenly","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}