Lakeside drummer Fred Alexander Jr. dies, remembered as the band’s backbone

Fred Alexander Jr. was the pocket behind Lakeside’s most recognizable run, the drummer whose feel powered “It’s All The Way Live,” “Fantastic Voyage” and the rest of the band’s polished, hard-grooving catalog. Lakeside confirmed his death on June 15, 2026, and the news landed as a reminder that in funk, the drummer is often the difference between a band that plays and a band that locks.

Alexander joined Lakeside in 1977, when the group was still called Lakeside Express, and that put him inside the whole climb. He came in as the band was tightening its identity, moving into the SOLAR Records orbit, and building the sound that later gave Lakeside lasting visibility on records and onstage. That stretch mattered: Alexander was not a late addition or a sideman passing through. He was there for the years when the groove got refined into a signature.

His path to that stool started earlier in Los Angeles. One biographical account says Alexander arrived in the city in 1974 with Liquid Funk and stayed behind when the other musicians returned to Dallas, Texas. That detail fits the arc of a player who was already committed to the scene before Lakeside fully coalesced. It also helps explain why his role went beyond timekeeping once he became part of the band’s core.

Lakeside described Alexander as the backbone of the group’s records and touring operation, the person who helped keep the machinery moving day to day. The obituary expanded on that picture, noting that he handled organization, paperwork and travel logistics as well as drums. Bandmate Stephen Shockley memorialized him publicly on Facebook, and one tribute from the band called him “our friend, our family and our band member of over 40 years.”

Alexander’s imprint is also written into the records themselves. Lakeside’s 1980 album Fantastic Voyage, released on SOLAR Records, carried the title track that became the group’s signature hit, and Discogs credits Alexander as a writer on multiple songs from the album, including “Fantastic Voyage,” “Your Love Is On The One” and “Say Yes.” That kind of credit tells the real story: Alexander shaped the band’s sound from the kit and from the songwriting table.

No cause of death or funeral arrangements were immediately announced. The Original Lakeside still had 2026 dates on the books, including a June 21 show in Macon, Georgia, which makes Alexander’s death feel especially sharp. The groove that carried Lakeside for nearly five decades was never just a background part, and now the band moves forward without the drummer who helped define its pulse.