We Just Want to Celebrate

Today we'd like to wish local funk, soul, and progressive Motown guitarist, Ray Monette a happy birthday! Ray turns 78 today!

Ray has been a huge part of Detroit musical history, playing in Rare Earth alongside countless bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Earth, Wind and Fire, The Eagles, and appearing on Phil Collins' 2010 album, Going Back, with the remaining members of the Motown collective. Ray got his start with Motown after announcing to his parents at age 13 that his plan was to become a professional guitar player. It's not many kids who decide their career path at that age end up following through with it, and it's an especially small few who make successful careers in music. 

Over the years, he watched a young Stevie Wonder hanging around the studio as he was taken under the wings of the older musicians there. He was also present downtown in Detroit at the moment the riots broke out. George Clinton asked him to join Parliament Funkadelic, but Ray was happy playing in Rare Earth at the time and wasn't keen on wearing diapers onstage as Clinton's troop was fond of doing then. 

We hope Ray still has some songs left in him, but either way, we just want to celebrate everything he's done for fusing funk, rock, and soul in the '70s. We have always been drawn to genre crossing innovations, and Ray's work is a great, early example of what's possible. Thank you, and enjoy a great birthday, Ray Monette!