Ronald LaPread, the former bassist of the Commodores, has died. He was 75.

On Saturday, Ronald’s daughter Soraya LaPread announced that her father died with a statement on her Instagram Story. The cause of death was not immediately made available.

“It is with a very heavy heart that I must announce that my father Ronald LaPread has passed,” wrote Soyala.

The New Zealand Herald, the local paper where Ronald lived for 40 years, reported that he died after a “sudden medical event.”

Born Sept. 4, 1950 in Florida, Ronald LaPread was one of the original Commodores when they were signed to Motown in 1972, led by Lionel Richie. The band scored a pair of Top 25 singles — “Machine Gun” and “Slippery When Wet” from its first two albums before scoring the Top 5 hit “Sweet Love” from its third LP, 1975’s Movin’ On. “Just to Be Close to You” from Hot on the Tracks reach No. 7 the following year.

The group’s eponymous fifth album in 1977 began a streak of four consecutive platinum Top 10 LPs and spawned the smash singles “Easy” and “Brick House.” The late ’70s saw the Commodores have a pair of U.S. No. 1 singles with the memorable “Three Times a Lady” and “Still” and hit No. 4 with “Sail On.”

In all, LaPread and the Commodores had 10 Top 10 singles before he left in 1986 and relocated to Auckland, NZ.

“It’s good to be remembered, but you must also know, that these people are human and they are fallible. They make mistakes, they get sick, they die, they get hooked on drugs,” LaPread recently mused on fame in an interview. “This will blow your mind. You will get into a fictitious life that’s not the real one. It’s not the real one.