Lamar Williams
Lamar Williams (born
January 14,
1949, in
Gulfport, Mississippi, died
January 21,
1983) was an
American musician, most known as the
bassist for
The Allman Brothers Band and
Sea Level.
Influenced by players from
James Jamerson to
Stanley Clarke, by the 1960s Williams was playing bass in a
soul music band known as Sounds of Soul with
Jai Johanny Johanson, the future drummer Jaimoe with the Allman Brothers. In 1968 Williams was drafted into the
United States Army and sent into the
Vietnam War. Opposed to the war and to killing in general, Williams went
AWOL frequently and wandered around the jungles of South Vietnam, occasionally returning to various units. He was given an honorable discharge in 1970.
After jamming with a Biloxi group known as the Fungus Blues Band, Williams joined the Allman Brothers in late 1972 after the death of original bassist
Berry Oakley, and played in the band at the peak of their commercial success. Williams' style was more traditional than Oakley's lead guitar-like approach, and freed the band's drummers to be more adventurous. After the Allmans dissolved in 1976, Williams founded Sea Level with
Jaimoe and
Chuck Leavell of the Allmans. In Sea Level he played in a looser, more jazz-like fashion. Williams left Sea Level in 1980, shortly before that band broke up.
Williams married Marian Belina in
1974 and they had two children.Williams was found to have
lung cancer in 1981, caused (his doctors believed) by exposure to
Agent Orange during his Vietnam adventures. He died less than two years later.
*
1980 Guitar Player interview by Jim Schwartz*
LAMAR WILLIAMS - OUT OF THE SHADOWS by John Lynskey 
