Commodores Bassist Ronald LaPread, Motown Legend, Dies at 75

One of soul music’s most foundational figures has passed. Ronald LaPread, the bassist who helped shape the Commodores’signature sound and anchored some of the biggest hits of the 1970s and 1980s, died following a sudden medical event in Auckland, New Zealand, where he had lived since the 1980s. He was 75. His daughter, music producer Soraya LaPread, announced his death on social media Saturday.

LaPread wasn’t just a sideline player—he was there from the beginning. He co-founded the Commodores in 1968 alongside Lionel Richie, Walter“Clyde”Orange, William“WAK”King, Milan Williams, and Thomas McClary while they were all students at Tuskegee Institute. The group started as The Mystics before becoming one of Motown’s most dominant forces. Over his tenure, LaPread played on 11 of the band’s albums and was essential to the bass lines that underpinned classics like Brick House, Three Times a Lady, and Easy—songs that didn’t just chart; they defined an era. The Commodores sold more than 70 million albums globally and became synonymous with a particularly sophisticated brand of soul and funk.

What’s striking about LaPread’s story is his quiet consistency. While frontman Lionel Richie’s departure in the early 1980s sent the group into turbulence, LaPread remained a stabilizing force. He continued to perform with the band, including shows across New Zealand and most recently during their 2025 tour. He showed up. He played. He kept the music alive, even as the industry moved on and the spotlight dimmed.

Just this week, the Commodores announced they were pulling out of Freedom 250’s Great American State Fair—a celebration tied to America’s 250th birthday—over the event’s political ties. It’s an unexpected final chapter for a band that spent decades simply making music that mattered. Now, as the music world processes LaPread’s passing, it’s worth remembering that the songs that soundtrack our lives don’t emerge from the spotlight—they come from the foundation. And that foundation was Ronald LaPread’s bass line, steady and essential, for more than five decades.