Douglas C. Grigsby III, bassist for Teena Marie, Michael Jackson, Patti LaBelle, Taj Mahal, dies at 57

Douglas C. Grigsby III, 57, of Eagleville, a bassist who spent 20 years performing with the singer Teena Marie and played with an array of popular musicians worldwide, died Wednesday, Feb. 17, at Temple University Hospital months after suffering a stroke.

“Doug had a brilliant mind. He was good at technology and programming. That is why Teena loved working with him,” said Daryl A. Burgee, a Philadelphia-based drummer.

In addition to playing and producing, Burgee said, Mr. Grigsby is also listed as a composer and writer on several of her albums.

His career spanned more than 40 years, with Mr. Grigsby playing or producing for Patti LaBelle, Rick James, Michael Jackson, Stephanie Mills, Taj Mahal, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Teddy Pendergrass, Grover Washington Jr., Phyllis Hyman, Sister Sledge, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Peabo Bryson, Luther Vandross, Schoolly D, and many others, according to his profile on allmusic.com.

Mr. Grigsby is credited on Michael Jackson’s 2017 Scream, a compilation album released years after Jackson’s 2009 death. He also performed on Jackson’s 2008 King of Pop album. And he played bass on Stephanie Mills’ 1989 recording of “Home” from the album of The Wiz musical.

Legend has it that Mr. Grigsby was only 13 when LaBelle noticed him. Actually, he was 18 when LaBelle hired him after an older bassist missed his plane and was late for a rehearsal, said Herb Smith, a guitarist who worked with LaBelle for about 20 years.

Smith said it was in 1981 when saxophonist Sam Peake told LaBelle he knew a young guy who could fill in.

“Dougie was young and hungry,” Smith said.

By the time the older bassist showed up, Smith said, “Dougie had that show tight. He was playing with all this new, young energy. The [older] bass player walked in a day later. He heard all this bass, and he knew he had lost his gig. He broke down in tears.”

Douglas Carroll Grigsby III was born in Queens, N.Y., on March 16, 1963, to Betty Gene Patterson and Douglas C. Giraudy.

He moved to Southwest Philadelphia at a young age with his mother, brother, and sister, said Mr. Grigsby’s daughter, Julie Colbert.

He developed a love for music as a toddler when a relative gave him a toy piano, his family said. He attended West Philadelphia High, where he spent a lot of time in the school’s music room, playing the piano and other instruments.

“My dad was the best dad ever, ” Colbert said. Even though he was on the road a lot, she said, she wasn’t bitter: “I always looked forward to those stories about whatever happened in Australia or Japan, or wherever he’d been.”

Andy Kravitz, a California drummer who grew up near Philadelphia, said he and Mr. Grigsby became good friends as teenagers, when they played in studio sessions together at Studio 4 and Ruffhouse Records.

Kravitz described him as “a brilliant musician who raised the bar and made everyone around him better. He led by example, he was such an exceptional musician.”

After years in California, Mr. Grigsby returned to Philadelphia about 2011, after Marie’s 2010 death.

He became recommitted to his Christian faith and attended Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia’s East Mount Airy neighborhood. Early last year, before the pandemic began, Mr. Grigsby and his wife, Carolyn, became members of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Norristown, she said.

The couple met in 2013 at a recording studio in North Philadelphia. For more than three years they were friends who sometimes worked together. They began dating in 2016 and married in July 2017.

“He was a Christian and was very religious,” Carolyn Grigsby said. “He wanted to do things the right way.”

She described her husband as very warm, loving, and friendly. He was especially talented at producing music on the computer.

Mr. Grigsby suffered a massive stroke in September 2020 and was hospitalized until his death.

In addition to his wife, daughter, and father, Mr. Grigsby is survived by a son, Abdullah Talib-Din; stepchildren George Rogers, Steve Rogers, Allison Schultze, and Danielle Schultze; his stepmother, Willie Mae Giraudy; 11 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and other relatives and friends.

There will be no services, but there is a GoFundMe for those who want to make donations to the Douglas Carroll Grigsby III Memorial Fund.