Mark Antone Adams

Mark Adams was the funky, nimble-fingered bassist for late-'70s/'80s nine-member funk band Slave who hit number one R&B and Top 40 pop the first time out with "Slide." The genesis of the Dayton, Ohio-born group was when East Orange, NJ, transplant Steve Washington moved to Dayton to finish high school while living with his uncle, trumpeter Ralph "pee Wee" Middlebrook of The Ohio Players. Washington had a band called Black Satin Soul, which included future Slave members Tim Dozier and Mark Hicks. After another local group, The Mystics broke up, its members Mark Adams, Floyd Miller, and Tom Lockett joined Washington's band in fall 1975. Adams was still in grade school, while the other members, who went on to include Carter Bradley, Daniel Webster, and Orion Wilhoite were in high school. Miller arrived at rehearsal one day sporting a T-shirt that had the word slave written across. The band decided to take the negative term and give it a positive connotation, musing "we're all slaves to God, the universe, and life in general" and thus Slave was born.

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