Larry Graham

Larry Graham Jr. (born August 14, 1946) is an American bassist and baritone singer, with the psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station. In 1980, he released the single "One in a Million You", which reached the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100. He is credited with the invention of the slapping technique on the electric bass guitar, which radically expanded the tonal palette of the bass, although he himself refers to the technique as "thumpin' and pluckin'".

In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Sly and the Family Stone. He is also the uncle of rapper Drake.

Graham was born August 14, 1946, in Beaumont, Texas, U.S., to parents who were successful musicians.

Graham played bass in the funk band Sly and the Family Stone from 1967 to 1972. The band was the first major American rock group to have a racially integrated, mixed-gender lineup. They had a series of influential tracks during the 1960s that entered the Billboard Hot 100 such as "Dance to the Music" (1968), "Everyday People" (1968), and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" (1969), as well as critically acclaimed albums such as Stand! (1969), which combined pop sensibility with social commentary.

After many years of tension between Graham and frontman Sly Stone, Larry Graham left Sly and the Family Stone in 1972, after a post-concert brawl broke out between Graham and Sly, and rumors also spread that Larry had hired a hit man to kill Sly. Graham and his wife climbed out of a hotel window to escape, and Pat Rizzo gave them a ride to safety. Unable to continue working with Sly, Graham immediately quit. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Sly and the Family Stone.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.