Phil Upchurch, guitar player, bass player, composer, died on November 23, 2025. The news came 10 days later.
Phil was a musician’s musician. Those who knew, knew. He played on over a thousand recordings, including some of the most iconic popular music ever made including Michael Jackson's Off The Wall, Donny Hathaway Live, Chaka Khan's “I’m Every Woman”, Curtis Mayfield's Superfly, and George Benson's Breezin to name only a few.
Producers loved to have him in the studio - Quincy Jones, Tommy LiPuma and Arif Mardin all worked with him repeatedly. He belonged to a generation that didn’t just contribute to the sound of popular music—they invented it. And like so many of the greatest studio players, he was easy to overlook unless you knew exactly where to listen. But if you did listen, you could always hear him. Phil had that rare gift: the ability to be unmistakably himself while serving the larger story.
My relationship with Phil is intertwined with my relationship with my father. They were friends for over fifty years. Some of my earliest memories of being in a studio involve the two of them together, laughing, experimenting, finding the music in the room. Some of my first gigs as a drummer were with Phil. He treated me with generosity and seriousness, not because I was “Ben’s kid,” but because he could see I was serious about the music and he let me know that there was a place for me, the next set of hands that might carry something forward.
It’s easy to romanticize mentorship, but the truth is it’s how the music survives. It’s how names and sounds persist across time. After Phil’s passing, I did what I’ve done before when a friend left the stage: I called my dad. We talked. We remembered. We tried to fill in the hole left in the fabric. And in doing so, we performed the small sacred act that keeps a musical life alive—we said his name.
To listen to the full tribute to Phil, visit https://www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story
