Global Courant 2023-04-20 00:30:31
Singer and guitarist Otis Redding IIIthe son and namesake of the legendary 1960s soul singer, has passed away from cancer at age 59, his family said Wednesday.
Redding was only 3 years old when his father, Otis Redding, was killed along with several bandmates in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. More than a decade later, the younger Redding and his brother, Dexter, formed the funk band The Reddings, which in the 1960s recorded eighty six albums.
“It is with a heavy heart that the family of Otis Redding III confirms that he lost his battle with cancer last night,” his sister, Karla Redding-Andrews, said in a statement on the Otis Redding Foundation’s Facebook page, the family organization. charity in Macon.
Although The Reddings’ singles “Remote Control” and “Call The Law” charted on the Billboard charts, the Redding brothers could never match their father’s success. Redding continued to play and perform after the band recorded their last album in 1988.
He was once hired for a European tour as the guitarist for soul singer Eddie Floyd, under whose direction the younger Redding felt comfortable performing “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” and other songs by his famous father.
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Otis Redding III appears in 2017 at his home in Macon, Georgia. (Woody Marshall/The Macon Telegraph via AP)
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“He said, ‘You can play the guitar with me, but you’re going to have to sing some of your dad’s songs,'” Redding recalled in a 2018 interview with WCSH-TV in Portland, Maine. “I was like, ‘Huh? I’m not singing,’ you know. And he was like, ‘Well, you’re going to sing ‘Dock of the Bay’ with me tonight.'”
Redding worked with his family’s foundation to organize summer camps that teach children how to play music, and served as president of the local chapter of Meals on Wheels.
According to his website, he continued to perform his father’s songs for audiences large and small, from performing onstage at Carnegie Hall for an Otis Redding tribute concert in 2018 to singing at weddings and private parties. Redding said he was grateful for the lasting legacy, even if it overshadowed efforts to make music himself.
“No matter how hard I try to do my own thing, you know, it’s like… ‘singing one of your dad’s songs,'” he told the Maine TV station. “So I go ahead and do what people want, and I live with it. But I’m not pressured and I’m not mentally pushing myself to go begging for record deals.”
