Died On This Date (September 12, 2007) Bobby Byrd / Discovered and Performed With James Brown
themusicsover Bobby Byrd
August 15, 1934 – September 12, 2007
Bobby Byrd was a young gospel and soul singer when, in 1952 while playing in a baseball game against the prisoners of a Georgia prison, he met inmate, James Brown. Brown was reportedly singing for the other inmates. Byrd was so impressed that he helped arrange for Brown’s parole. Over the next 20 years, Byrd helped guide Brown’s career while singing and writing songs with him. He was the leader of Brown’s back-up group, the Blue Flames. Byrd released his own records in the ’70s. His music has been sampled by the likes of Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, and LL Cool J. Bobby Byrd died of cancer at the age of 73.
Charlie Walker was not only a hit-making country singer, he was also one of the genre’s most respected disc jockeys. He began his career at a San Antonio radio station in 1951, and by the mid ’50s, he was recording for Decca Records, and later, Columbia Records. His 1958 recording of Harlan Howard’s “Pick Me Up On Your Way Down” is a staple of country music. Walker became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1967. He passed away while sufferering from colon cancer at the age of 81.
After a stint as drummer for hardcore punk band Agnostic Front, Ray “Raybeez” Barbieri went on to help form New York cult favorites, Warzone. The band formed in 1982, with Barbieri being the only original member to stay with the band until is untimely death in 1997. A Navy veteran, he was admitted to a VA hospital where he died while being treated from pneumonia. Fans and friends have claimed that the inadequate facility was to blame for his untimely death.