Preston Hubbard dies aged 63

Preston Hubbard

Preston Hubbard has died aged 63.

The former Fabulous Thunderbirds and Room Full Of Blues bassist was found dead at his home in St Louis, Missouri yesterday.

He was well-known in the blues community for his other work with Bonnie Raitt, The Vaughan Brothers, Duke Robillard, Etta James, Professor Longhair and The Blues Brothers.

Hubbard suffered a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction in the years since his exit from The Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1995, though he later adopted a cleaner lifestyle.

Guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor led tributes to the late blues bassist, describing him as “A true hero of mine, supporter and friend.”

She adds: “I grew up watching him play with the T-Birds. When I was 19 a demo of mine fell into his hands and he made the effort to get in touch with me personally. He offered a lot of praise, guidance and support and only because he wanted to.

“He came out when he could if I was playing in St Louis to support me. I’m not quite sure what’s happened, but I know that my world is not the same place moving forward.”

Fabulous Thunderbirds launch their album Strong Like That on August 26. They’ll commence their US tour this week.

Fabulous Thunderbirds gave up on preaching blues

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Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.