BB Dickerson – one of the founding members of the funk band War – would have died.
A representative confirmed his move to Billboard, citing a battle with a long, undisclosed illness. He said BB – whose real name was Morris – died peacefully at his home in Long Beach.
Dickerson was one of the members of the band OG that helped put War on the map in the late 60s and 70s – after discovering it by the music producer Jerry Goldstein and paired with the vocalist Eric Burdon … who served as the face of the group after that.
He served as lead bassist for War, and often contributed vocals as well – including leading the vocalist role in his more than 10-minute work “The World is a Ghetto” – which has been reinvented and covered numerous times over the years .
BB also participated in War’s most successful single to date, “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” as well as a long sequence of other well-known tracks, such as “Spill the Wine”, “Gypsy Man”, “Low Rider”, “Me and Baby Brother”, “The Cisco Kid”, “All Day Music”, “Slippin ‘Into Darkness, “” Summer “and countless others.
He was also there performing with War when they shared the stage remarkably with Jimi Hendrix in London in 1970 – which became his last public performance before he died.
BB toured and performed with War until 1979 – when he left, only to meet with other founding members in the 90s under a new stage name, Lowrider Band, while trying to escape the hands of Goldstein, who had the rights to “War “.
BB would have left his mother, uncle and children. He was 71 years old.
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