Ronald LaPread, Bass Player on 'Brick House,' Dead at 75
Ronald LaPread died Saturday following a sudden medical event in Auckland, New Zealand. He was 75 and had lived there for 40 years.
His daughter Soraya — a music producer — confirmed the news on Instagram. "It is with very heavy heart that I must announce that my Father Ronald LaPread has passed," she wrote alongside a photo of the two of them together.
LaPread co-founded the Commodores. If you don't know his name, you almost certainly know his work — he's the bassist on "Brick House," "Easy," "Three Times a Lady," "Sail On," "Still," and "Nightshift." Sixteen years with the group. Eleven albums. Nine Grammy nominations during his tenure, including a win in 1986 for Nightshift.
Where It Started
LaPread and his future bandmates — Lionel Richie, Walter "Clyde" Orange, Thomas McClary, William King, and Milan Williams — met as students at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. They formed the Commodores there, got their big break opening for the Jackson 5 in 1971, signed with Motown in 1972, and released their debut album Machine Gun in 1974.
The rest is the kind of music history that doesn't need much explaining. Those bass lines became part of the American sonic fabric. Brick House alone has been sampled, covered, and played at sporting events more times than anyone could count.
After He Left
LaPread walked away from the Commodores in 1986 and eventually settled in New Zealand — about as far from Tuskegee, Alabama as a person can get. He kept playing though. In a 2022 interview he described going to his home studio every single day.
"I play some bass and some keyboard and some singing. I do it every day because that's my joy," he said. "I believe that God gave me that gift, but I will use it until I can't do it anymore."
He also said his dream was to get back on stage with his old bandmates one more time just for the fun of it. In October 2025 he got that. LaPread joined the Commodores' current lineup for their show in Auckland — and the band posted about it with genuine excitement.
"Our highlight? We were joined on stage by original Commodores bass player Ronald LaPread!"
That turned out to be one of his last performances.
The mayor of Tuskegee called him one of the city's most distinguished native sons. The Commodores — who just made headlines last week for pulling out of a politically charged state fair performance, saying their music had always been their voice — have lost the man who helped give them that voice in the first place.
R.I.P. Ronald LaPread.
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