Ronald LaPread, Funky Bassist for the Commodores, Dies at 76

A talented musician, he lied when asked by Lionel Richie, the lead singer, if he played bass. Then he taught himself how, and was essential to the band’s success.


Ronald LaPread, right, performing with the Commodores in 1978. He joined the band in 1970 and remained a member for 16 years, contributing to multiple Top 10 singles and albums. Mike Prior/Redferns, via Getty Images

By Richard Sandomir
June 15, 2026

Ronald LaPread, who helped define the funky, soulful sound of the Commodores as the band’s bassist during the 1970s and ’80s, on hits like “Brick House,” “Three Times a Lady” and “Easy,” died on May 30 in Auckland, New Zealand. He was 76. ... He had lived in Auckland since 1986 and died at a hospital, said his friend Tim Roxborogh, who did not disclose the cause.

Mr. LaPread joined the Commodores in 1970 and remained with them for 16 years, as they grew from their roots in Tuskegee, Ala., to become an opening act for the Jackson 5 as well as a Motown staple with a bounty of Top 10 singles and albums. ... He faked his way into the group when it needed a new bass player to replace Michael Gilbert, who had been drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. Mr. LaPread was a talented musician who was playing keyboards at an American Legion hall show when Lionel Richie and Thomas McClary, two of the band’s members, asked if he knew anyone who played bass.

Without hesitation, he told them that he played bass. It was a lie. ... “I said, ‘I’m the baddest-ass player in Tuskegee,’” he recalled in a video he posted on Instagram recently. ... Mr. LaPread borrowed a friend’s bass and, in the days before his first rehearsal with the band, learned the bass line of James Brown’s funk single “Cold Sweat.” His fear that he would be handed music to read at the rehearsal was allayed when someone put “Liar,” a single that had recently been released by Three Dog Night, on the turntable. ... “I got this,” he said, recalling his relief.

His bass playing turned out to be the Commodores’ rhythmic and harmonic bedrock — terse, precise and unshowy. ... His syncopated part on “Brick House” (1977), a raucous ode to a voluptuous woman, was perhaps his best-known contribution. But he conceived most of the group’s bass parts. ... “I never had to play another bassist’s music,” he told the podcast “Truth in Rhythm” in 2022.


Mr. LaPread, top center, in 1976 with his Commodores bandmates: clockwise from top left, Walter Orange, Milan Williams, William King, Lionel Richie and Thomas McClary. Gilles Petard/Redferns, via Getty Images

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Richard Sandomir, an obituaries reporter, has been writing for The Times for more than three decades.