Berry Oakley

Raymond Berry Oakley III (April 4, 1948 – November 11, 1972) was an American bassist and one of the founding members of the Allman Brothers Band, known for long melodic bass runs. He is ranked number 46 on the Bass Player magazine’s list of “The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time”.[1] He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Allman Brothers Band in 1995.

Oakley was born in Chicago, Illinois, raised in the suburb of Park Forest, Illinois,[2] then moved to Florida where he met and joined Dickey Betts’s band, the Blues Messengers, later called Second Coming. He was a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band in 1969, along with guitarists Betts and Duane Allman, singer and keyboardist Gregg Allman, and drummers and percussionists Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson.