﻿On April the 25th 1999, in Dayton Ohio, a shocking discovery was made in an alley behind the
Troutman Sound Labs, a recording studio. Legendary funk artist Roger Troutman laid dead with apparent
gunshot wounds. Less than a mile away, his brother Larry Troutman was also found dead.
Two more tragic deaths in the world of r&b.
Zapp is a group known for their contribution to the funk era. The group consisted of 5 brothers.
All in all there were 10 Troutman siblings. 5 girls and 5 boys.
Roger Troutman was the fourth oldest and his talent was the first to be discovered.
He learned various instruments as a kid, learning one after another.
When he mastered one instrument,
his father would give him another to learn, not wanting him to be limited.
Roger’s father once told him:
Instruments are merely a vehicle to express what’s inside of you.
If you had just picked up one instrument, it would have limited you.
Roger became a multi-instrumentalist
and could play by ear. He usually learned his dad’s favorite songs when practicing.
Roger formed different bands in the early years in a pursuit of a music career.
He would become home frustrated with those he worked with.
Band members would not show up on time, miss shows and leave.
He decided to teach his younger brothers how to play and nurture them to eventually join his band.
As soon as his younger brothers were old enough to play in the clubs, they officially became a group.
They were soon discovered by George Clinton
and he signed them. They were originally called Zapp and the Human Body.
George said they had to come up with a better name.
That name wasn’t going to compete
with names such as Parliament Funkadelic and Sly and The Family Stone.
They struggled to come up with a name until someone called out to the youngest brother,
whose nickname was Zapp. As soon as George heard this he said, that's the name.
Two years later Roger signed a solo deal with Bootsy Collins under his Rubber Band Music label.
His legendary catalogue soon followed, top ten
hits such as More Bounce to the Ounce and Computer Love.
Roger Troutman is known for his use of the talk box
which creates an electro harmonix effect when singing.
Stevie Wonder is believed to be the first performer to use it on national TV,
on an episode of Sesame Street.
Roger and his brothers saw this while watching TV one day. He was intrigued by this device.
In those days you couldn’t rewind the TV or even record anything, the internet didn’t exist
so they couldn't just google it.
He vowed to find out more about this device,
asking around when working at different recording studios or asking other artists while on the road.
It was their father who discovered the name of the device after asking around. He was able
to pass the information onto Roger and the rest is history. He took it to another level.
Zapp and Roger’s music was well ahead of its time, with songs like Computer Love
where he sings about a love interest on his computer screen,
hinting to what would come in the future with online communication.
Roger was a composer, songwriter and producer. He was the core of the group.
Larry successfully dealt with the group’s business affairs,
and his name is on some of the songwriting credits.
Music was a family business that brought the brothers even closer together.
It was all they knew from as long as they could remember.
Roger released three albums as a solo artist and he had two number one hits on the Billboard r&b
charts, Heard It Through the Grapevine from his debut album
and I Wanna Be Your Man, released in 1987 from his third album Unlimited.
The latter also reached three on the Billboard Hot 100.
Then in 1996, Roger collaborated with Dr Dre
on Tupac Shakur’s Grammy nominated number one hit California Love.
He also made an appearance in the Mad Max themed video.
His signature, electronic talk box vocals can be heard throughout the song.
Zapp and Roger as a solo artist have influenced many other artists
in hip hop and r&b, old and new. As well as Funk and popular music in general.
That’s why his untimely death at the hands of his own brother shocked the industry.
Both fans and colleagues couldn’t accept the loss of such a music pioneer
and the violence that preceded the tragedy.
In one interview Lester Troutman describes knowing something was wrong on that fateful day.
It was Sunday morning and he saw 25 voicemail messages on his phone.
As he went to check them, the phone rang.
HIs friend and fellow singer, Shirley Murdock was on the line. Have you heard? She asked.
Heard what?
“It’s Larry,” She sobbed. He’s dead.
Immediately Lester’s thoughts turned to his other brother. He simply asked “Where’s Roger”?
She replied
“Shot as well, By Larry”
Lester doesn’t remember much more after that.
It was as if time had stopped and his whole world fell apart.
Larry was found not far from his younger brother Roger with a self
inflicted gunshot wound. It is believed he shot his brother and then took his own life.
So what happened? How did it come to this?
Apparently tensions had been building between the two brothers
for some time. Mainly over money and family business.
Roger’s solo career had taken off and Larry was his manager.
But no one, not even their own family could have imagined such a tragedy occurring.
Not only did the shooting rob a family of two sons and brothers, it took away a musical revolutionary
and one of the most frequently sampled artists in the history of hip hop.
Particularly in West Coast Funk.
It was an inexplicable ending for such a legendary icon
as well as the senseless death of his brother.
Lester Troutman ran into the street, dropped his phone and cried upon hearing the news.
Roger was found in an alley by Police at 7:20 in the morning behind Roger Tee
Enterprises. The family’s recording studio and business headquarters on Salem Avenue.
Larry shot his brother four times in the chest.
The murder weapon was a 357 Smith & Wesson revolver.
Witnesses said he was shot after he tried to get out of the passenger seat of a black sedan.
Minutes later, reports came in that a black Lincoln
had slammed into a tree less than a mile away, on Harvard Boulevard.
Larry Troutman was found in the driver’s seat, deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound
to the head. The coroner confirmed that the bullet was from the same handgun.
Lester spoke about what the family did in the days following the murder.
“My brothers and I rode around and tried to collect our thoughts.
We went to my sister's house and we wouldn’t let nobody come in for a week.
We got through it with love and bonding.”
The murder-suicide occurred a week after the Colobine School shootings. Their mother
was watching the news coverage and turned to Lester and said:
“I can understand how all those boy’s mothers feel”
It broke his heart.
News of Roger and Larry’s deaths caused shockwaves within the Dayton Community.
Friend Dale Degroat said:
“It was just so unthinkable. Larry was the guy in the beginning who told me, ‘A Lot of
money is gonna cross your hands. But never let the money be more important than the people.”
Till this day, no one knows for sure why Larry did what he did.
Family members said Roger was considering cutting ties with Larry professionally.
Roger had a thriving solo career but the Troutman Enterprises was struggling.
Roger wanted to split from the group Zapp and no longer have Larry as his manager.
This obviously would have affected Larry financially and taken away a huge source
of income for him. So on the surface it all seemed to be related to money.
Roger was 47 years old and Larry was 54.
Asked if he resents Larry for killing Roger, Lester said:
“Of course I resent it. I resent that my brother Roger is gone more than anything else
in the world. I resent whatever sickness came over Larry that caused him to do something like that.”
Roger and Larry Troutman had a joint funeral service six days later. Up
to 3000 people attended. Fans packed the Solid Rock Church in Monroe Ohio.
Boosie Collins attended, as well as local bands and members of funk royalty. Their nephew Rufus
sang Amazing Grace, of course, he sang it through a talkbox.
The brothers were buried together at the Greenwood Cemetery.
That’s right. Don’t know how I feel about that.
Zapp began touring again after the ordeal.
In the What Had Happened Podcast: A Podcast for DAyton, Lester said:
On April the 25th 1999, at 5:30am: I thought we would never play again.
But after the tragedy, the surviving members received letters, faxes and phone calls from
fans all over the country and from different parts of the world, asking when they were coming back.
Fans from all over wanted to know when they were coming to their towns
and countries. That’s when they decided to keep going.
He said, the love and bond is still there. He’ll be lying if he said they never had any problems
or members wanting to do other things. But their bond never left.
They even released new music a couple of years ago. Their recent album features artists such
as Snoop and Kurrupt and the vocals of their brother Roger is also included.
The family experienced more tragedy in 2020,
when the granddaughter of Roger Troutman passed away unexpectedly.
Rapper Lexi Alijai died from an accidental drug overdose
of fentanyl and ethanol, just six weeks before her 22nd birthday.
She was a promising new talent in hip hop, appearing on Kehlani's Grammy-nominated album
and performing at Soundset and First Ave.
Her father is Roger Troutman Jr, who recorded for Capital Records throughout the 80s.
Did you grow up listening to Zapp and Roger?
No doubt, you certainly would have heard his influence
on artists who were inspired by him and sampled his music.
And were you aware of the tragic way in which he died?
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