B.B. Cunningham, Jr. of the 60’s group the Hombres and Jerry Lee Lewis’ band, was killed on early Sunday in a shootout while working as a security guard.
B.B. Cunningham
He was 70.
Cunningham was working as a guard in a Memphis apartment complex when he heard a gunshot from a neighboring building. There are no further details other than Cunningham and a 16-year-old were both found dead from gunshot wounds.
Cunningham’s brother, Bill, who was a founder of the Box Tops, was reached by the Memphis Commercial Appeal who confirmed that B.B. was dead but had no further details.
B.B. and Bill were the sons of Buddy Cunningham who recorded under the name of Buddy Blake. Growing up in a musical family, B.B. always had a great interest and started his first band with Jerry Atwood in the 50’s called The Six O’Clock Boys who were rivals of the Royal Spades who eventually became the Mar-Keys.
The Six O’Clock Boys had a small regional hit with Ivory Marbles and B.B., at 14, was the youngest person allowed to join the Memphis Musicians Union.
Cunningham continued in music until, in 1965, he joined Ronnie and the Daytonas as part of their touring band. A year later, the Daytonas changed their name to the Hombres who would go on to have a national hit in 1967 with Let It All Hang Out (#12 Pop).
After the Hombres, Cunningham started working at the Sounds of Memphis Studio where he started doing audio engineering, first working with the group Felicity which included a young Don Henley. He stayed with the studio until 1971 when he moved to California to work at Independent Recorders, but returned to Memphis four years later to start House of Foust.
Cunningham joined with Jerry Lee Lewis’ band in 1997 and has been touring with them since. In 2003, he released the solo album Hangin’ In.
