until March 2018. He said over the years he learned little tricks to help him maintain his drumming skills. He died on May 1, 2018, at his home in Mobile, Alabama, at the age of 80 from leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. He was survived by his wife Naomi Taplin Starks, a daughter, a son, and two grandchildren. Recognition In 2013, Starks and Stubblefield received the Yamaha Legacy Award. In 2016 Rolling Stone magazine named Starks and Stubblefield the sixth best drummer of all time. According to National Public Radio, "the grooves the two drummers (Starks and Stubblefield) created have inspired generations of artists – not just in funk, but in hip-hop, where their steady but intricate patterns make natural material for sampling." Bassist Bootsy Collins called Starks the steady rock that he built his bass grooves on while with James Brown. Trombonist Fred Wesley called Starks his favorite drummer and said "I could just lose myself in that 'stop your heart' groove and just blow free.” According to The Pacemakers drummer Frank "Kash" Waddy, Starks was a disciplined player and his "forte was to play very clean, very straight ahead." According to drummer-journalist Ahmir Thompson, Starks was Brown's "most effective drummer" and called his eight-on-the-floor style "unique". He credits Starks' drum patterns for the birth of New Jack Swing and Baltimore club/Jersey club styles. Drummer-author Jim Payne wrote: Starks "could put the groove somewhere between 16th notes and 16th-note triplets and turn funk into an infectious, swinging half-time shuffle. His drum tracks, sampled again and again by hip-hoppers and hit-makers, attest to the strength and longevity of his creative talents." Quotations In a 1995 interview with WGBH, Starks said: "I'm not trying to outplay anybody else. The only thing I want to do is keep that heartbeat going as they call it, (...) the bass player or the guitar player or the horn player could do whatever he wants to do because he knows that that solid foundation is back there behind him." In a 2015 interview with Mobile Bay Magazine, Starks said, "When I'm playing music (...) there ain't nobody in the world higher than I am." Selected discography Credits adapted in part from AllMusic and Discogs. With The Funkmasters as co-leader Find the Groove (Funkmasters, 2001) Come Get Summa This (Funkmasters, 2006) With Bobby Bland Two Steps from the Blues (Duke, 1961) Here's the Man! (Duke, 1962) Call