The R&B, funk, pop, and fusion drummer John Blackwell was born on September 9, 1973 and raised in Columbia, South Carolina. His father, John Blackwell, Sr., who was also a drummer, played along with Mary Wells, King Curtis, Joe Simon, J.J. Jackson, the Drifters and the Spinners. Blackwell began his career playing in his high school jazz and marching band. He also began playing in jazz clubs at the age of 13. In 1995, when he was twenty-two, he began playing for the band Cameo. He held this position for 3 years and then moved to Los Angeles in 1998. That same year, he got a job playing for Patti Labelle, which led to him playing on the Grammy Award winning live album, Live! One Night Only.
Throughout the years, Blackwell performed with artists like Justin Timberlake, P. Diddy and D’Angelo. But, earlier in his career, Prince and Blackwell connected through Patti Labelle. In 2000, Blackwell left Labelle to join Prince’s band, “The New Power Generation.” He toured and recorded with Prince for twelve years. You can hear him on Prince’s instrumental album, N.E.W.S, and the live album, Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas.
Blackwell was an important and famous musician in his own right. He had endorsements from Tama Drums and Zildjian cymbals and sticks. He only moved to Zildjian after a long co-operation with the companies Sabian and Vater Most recently he worked with D’angelo for D’Angelo’s comeback album, Black Messiah. Sadly, Blackwell passed away because of a brain tumor in the summer of 2017. He was only forty-three.