Michael Sumler, who spent years working with the venerable soul-funk group Kool & the Gang as both an onstage hype man and a behind-the-scenes stylist, died Sunday in a car crash in Georgia. He was 71.
His death was confirmed by a spokesman for the band. 11Alive, a TV station in Atlanta, reported that Sumler was killed after his car collided with another vehicle as he was traveling on Veterans Memorial Highway in Georgia’s Cobb County. Sumler, who was known as Chicago Mike, had performed Sunday evening in Mableton, Ga., with the group Con Funk Shun, whose Michael Cooper paid tribute to Sumler on social media.
“We had no idea that Sunday night’s Love’s Train would be your last ride,” Cooper wrote. “Rest in heavenly peace.”
In its statement, Kool & the Gang described Sumler as “our longtime wardrobe valet” and said he worked with the band from 2000 to 2015, “making sure the guys looked their best on stage every night.” Sumler “also hyped the crowd with his energy and dance moves at the top of the show,” the group added.
Known for hits including “Ladies Night,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Get Down on It” and “Celebration,” Kool & the Gang was formed in the mid-1960s in Jersey City, N.J., by brothers Robert Bell (who went by Kool) and Ronald Khalis Bell along with several neighborhood pals. Khalis Bell died in 2020; George “Funky” Brown, the band’s founding drummer, died in 2023. Last year the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which called Kool & the Gang “the most sampled group in hip-hop history.”
Among the countless songs that have borrowed elements of Kool & the Gang’s music: Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind,” Mase’s “Feel So Good,” Luniz’s “I Got 5 on It,” the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Method Man” and “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.
In 2021, Kool & the Gang became the first act to perform for a full-capacity crowd at the Hollywood Bowl after a lengthy and unprecedented closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Information on Sumler’s survivors wasn’t immediately available.
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