Sweet Charles Sherrell born 8 March 1943

Sweet Charles Sherrell (March 8, 1943 – March 29, 2023) was an American bassist known for recording and performing with James Brown. He was a member of The J.B.'s from 1973 to 1996. 

Born Charles Emanuel Sherrell in Nashville, Tennessee, Sherrell started making music when he was 8 years old at school. He began playing trombone for 2 years, trumpet for 2 years and drums for 6 years. Then he attended university T.S.U and became a  music major. 

Sweets started playing R&B with Jimmy Hendrix and one of his bass players Billy Cox who also lived in Nashville. They used to practice at Club Del-Mor-Roca on Jefferson Street, one block from Jimmy's house. He was playing drums and tought himself to play bass. Sherrell learned to play the guitar by washing the car (a Jaguar) of Curtis Mayfield in exchange for guitar lessons. Sherrell soon began teaching himself to play the bass after buying one from a local pawn shop for $69, which led him to join Johnny Jones & The King Kasuals Band, Aretha Franklin's backing group. 

                                   

Sherrell joined James Brown's band in August 1968, replacing Tim Drummond after Drummond contracted hepatitis in Vietnam. He played on some of Brown's most famous recordings of the late 1960s, including the #1 R&B hits "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud", "Mother Popcorn", and "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" and more. Brown credited him with being his first bassist to incorporate playing techniques such as thumping on the strings that were adopted by other players, including Bootsy Collins. 

In the 1970s, Sherrell rejoined Brown and performed with The J.B.'s. He later played with Al Green, Snoop Dog and Maceo & All the King's Men. He played bass on Beau Dollar's Who knows, Marva Whitney's and Lyn Collins album. He sang on a few of Maceo Parker's albums. 

He also released some recordings with the band Past Present & Future with friends Wade Conklin, Sam Pugh, Ted Hughes, Gail Whitefield, Thomas Smith, and James Nixon and he recorded under the name Sweet Charles, including his first solo album, Sweet Charles: For Sweet People, on James Brown's label People Records and the Sweet Charles Sherrell Universal Love album in 2017. 

Charles had hung in there amazingly long in good spirits battling lung emphysema, but his heart couldn’t cope anymore and he died on March 29, 2023, at his home in The Netherlands. 

(Edited from Wikipedia)