Happy birthday to John “Jabo” Starks, born on this day in 1938!
A funk drumming titan from Mobile, Alabama, he absorbed the deep grooves of the South’s R&B scene, locking in with James Brown’s band at 23 and defining the pocket with razor-sharp precision.
His unbreakable beats on classics like “Cold Sweat” (1967) and “The Payback” (1973) fused raw funk with soulful swing, earning a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and cementing his legacy as the heartbeat of funk.