West News Wire: Son and namesake of the renowned 1960s soul musician Otis Redding, singer and guitarist Otis Redding III passed away at age 59 from cancer, his family said on Wednesday.
Otis Redding and three other band members died in an aircraft crash on December 10, 1967, when Redding was only 3 years old. The Reddings, a funk group that released six albums in the 1980s, was founded by the younger Redding and his brother Dexter more than ten years later.
“It is with heavy hearts that the family of Otis Redding III confirms that he lost his battle with cancer last evening,” wrote his sister Karla Redding-Andrews on the Facebook page of the Otis Redding Foundation, the family’s Macon-based charity.
Though singles “Remote Control” and “Call The Law” by The Reddings made appearances on the Billboard music charts, the Redding brothers never matched their father’s success. Redding continued playing and performing after the band recorded its final album in 1988.
He was once hired for a European tour as guitarist for soul singer Eddie Floyd, under whose guidance the younger Redding became comfortable performing “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” and other songs of his famous father.
“He said, `You can play guitar with me, but you’re going to have to sing a few of your dad’s songs,'” Redding recalled in a 2018 interview with WCSH-TV in Portland, Maine. “I was like, `Huh? I don’t sing,’ you know. And he was like, `Well, you’re going to sing ”Dock of the Bay” with me tonight.’”
Redding worked with his family’s foundation to organize summer camps that teach children to play music, and served as board president for the local chapter of Meals on Wheels.
He continued to perform his father’s songs live, saying he was grateful for the enduring legacy even if it overshadowed his efforts to make music of his own.
“No matter how hard I try to do my own thing, you know, it’s like sing one of your daddy’s songs,” he told the Maine TV station. “So I go ahead and do what people want, and I live with it. But I’m not under any pressure and I don’t put myself mentally under any pressure to go begging for record deals.”
