Tributes have poured in for Kool & the Gang’s hypeman who’s remembered because the “lifetime of the celebration”. Michael Sumler, a member of Kool and The Gang, tragically died on the age of 71 following a automobile crash in Georgia’s Cobb County over the weekend. The devastating information of the R&B star’s demise, often known as “Chicago Mike,” was reported by Fox 5 Atlanta. It’s understood that Michael was concerned in a automobile accident simply earlier than midnight on Saturday, Could 24, when his automobile collided with one other on Veterans Memorial Freeway close to Buckner Highway. Tragically, Michael was pronounced useless on the scene.

In response to Atlanta Information First, the opposite driver concerned within the collision escaped with out harm. Mableton Mayor Michael Owens paid tribute to the late musician, who had lately carried out on the metropolis’s Mable Home Barnes Amphitheatre as a part of the “Night of Funk with Midnight Star | Confunkshun Rose Royce,” previous to the deadly crash. In a heartfelt assertion, Mayor Owens stated: “We’re saddened by the demise of musician Michael Sumler. ‘Chicago Mike’ contributed a lot to the music and leisure communities. His fashion and power added flare and pleasure to Kool and the Gang for many years. Town of Mableton, council members and I be a part of his household, buddies and followers in mourning his loss,” studies The Mirror US.

Tributes have been flooding in for the departed soul legend, with Adrian Meeks from Music Supply Music Group telling Fox 5 Atlanta that Michael’s passing is a “devastating blow”.

The music mogul reminisced about how Michael was “all the time jovial, all the time simply variety, all the time wanting to ensure all people else round him was good.”

He went on to reward Michael as a “nice man” who will “be dearly missed.

“He all the time wished to see different folks succeed within the enterprise that he’d been round most of all of his life,” Adrian stated. “He was the bridge, you recognize, for uplifting artists and songwriters and producers and musicians to the legends.”

Greg Williams from Change Leisure remembered Michael because the “was the hype man out of the group, getting the viewers going.”

Greg additionally paid homage to the late 71 yr previous, saying he “was one among these folks God placed on a planet to show folks the way to act as a result of he was variety, he was considerate, he was clever, he was articulate and he was the lifetime of the celebration”.

The singer was a music trade mogul who featured as a backing vocalist for the legendary Kool & the Gang.

Sumler first joined the band in 1985 and would go on to mentor a number of younger musicians.

Kool & the Gang had been shaped in 1969 and had an illustrious profession, profitable two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 High Ten R&B hits, 9 High Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albums.

The favored band had been the longest performing R&B group in historical past and are greatest identified for hits together with Get Down On It and Celebration.