Alto Reed, who played the saxophone for Bob Seger’s multiplatinum band Silver Bullet Band for nearly half a century, died Wednesday of colon cancer. He was 72 years old.
Seger posted a note about his “longtime friend and bandmate” on social media: “He was amazing – he could play anything,” he wrote. “In our band, he was the rock star.” Read the full post below.
Born Thomas Cartmell in Detroit in 1948, Reed was known for his showmanship on stage and his saxophone riff on “Turn the Page”. He started playing with Seger in the early 1970s, playing on his In ’72 albums and joined the band for their first arena shows at Detroit’s Cobo Hall. In 1974, he was a full member of the Silver Bullet Band, which was about to break nationally with “Live ”Bullet (1976), which was recorded at Cobo Hall and featured a sizzling version of “Turn the Page” powered by Reed, which remains a staple on classic rock radio. Metallica covered the song on their 1998 album Garage Inc., with a guitar riff replacing the sax.
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Reed joined Seger and several other longtime bandmates for a 2019-20 farewell tour that was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. He played the familiar “Mainstreet” guitar riff on the sax during that tour and others. His saxophone also helped propel Seger classics like “Rock and Roll Never Forgets” and the 1978 hit “Old Time Rock and Roll”.
He was part of the band during the heyday of the 1970s and 1980s, playing on multiplatinum albums Wonderful loser, nocturnal movements, strange in the city, against the wind – who topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks in 1980 – and on the 1981 live set Nine tonight. The bachelor “Against the Wind ”won the group only at the Grammy, in the category of Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group, and also got a second nomination that year.
The group scored eight consecutive best records from 1976-94, including Greatest hits, which sold more than 10 million units in the US alone. From the band The distance, like a rock, The fire Inside, face the promise and Biggest hits 2 also sold at least 1 million units, and 1996’s It’s a mystery it was gold.
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band have also accumulated seven singles in the Top 10, from the 1976 classic “Night Moves” to the only leader of the group’s charts, “Shakedown”, from the 1987 film Beverly Hills Cop II. The title cut from Like a rock it reached 12th position in 1986, but it became almost as familiar as any of the group’s songs as the cut featured in a long TV advertising campaign for Chevrolet trucks during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Seger was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, but his Silver Bullet Band was not recognized.
Reed leaves two daughters.