Rob Grill RIP

ROB GRILL, the longtime frontman and bassist of the Grass Roots, died on Monday in Tavares, FL, at the age of 67 from complications of a head injury sustained in a fall last month. He had been in coma since suffering two strokes following the fall, each located in different parts of his brain. Though Grill wasn’t a founding member of the Grass Roots, he was a mainstay of the group and sang lead on all of their Top 40 singles, including the classics "Midnight Confessions" “Where Were You When I Need You,” “Temptation Eyes” and "Let's Live for Today." Their hits, some of them written by young L.A. pros P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, who assembled the group as a vehicle for their material, were hook-filled, while the band’s highly accessible style blended elements of folk rock, soul, blues and British Invasion-style pop, full of tight harmonies, frequently with horn accents, over upbeat grooves. “The Grass Roots weren’t the hippest band on the block,” the Boston Globe wrote in 1989. “But they were—and remain—a sure-fire guilty pleasure, a blissful package of pure pop.” The singer was drafted into the band early in its history, right around the time the Los Angeles band the 13th Floor—which included future Office star Creed Bratton—was absorbed into Sloan and Barri’s project. Grill had spent much of the past three decades touring the nostalgia circuit. (7/13a)