Nowadays, Raphael Saadiq is known as a multi-instrumental Grammy Award-winning producer for the likes of Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé and Mary J. Blige. But in his early years, he made his mark as a bassist, most notably fronting and playing bass in the group Tony! Toni! Toné! However, he recently admitted that being the lead vocalist while playing bass can be tricky – which was one of the reasons he decided to switch to guitar.
“When you gonna be a frontman, I like frontmen that play guitars, not bass,” he says on the Broken Record Podcast. “I mean, I love Larry [Graham], he plays bass, but it's hard to play bass and sing, [like] Bootsy [Collins], Level 42, Rush."
