MOUNT DORA, Fla. — Rob Grill, lead singer of the 1960s rock band The Grass Roots, famous for such smash hits as “Midnight Confessions” and “Temptation Eyes,” died Monday at a Florida hospice facility while listening to one of his favorite songs — “Let’s Live for Today.” He was 67.
The Mount Dora, Fla., resident had recently suffered a head injury in a fall and was in a coma, according to reports. He also suffered from other health problems, including two recent strokes.
The Grass Roots was a “reliable” musical group that depended on Grill’s good looks and pleasing voice to churn hit song after hit song, Jim Carlton, a Mount Dora writer and musician, said Tuesday.
“He had a voice that was very catchy and marketable,” Carlton said. “And Rob was a very smart guy. He obviously had this savvy about the music business.”
Raised in Hollywood, Calif., Grill joined The Grass Roots as a singer and bass player in the mid-’60s. The band had its first top-10 hit in 1967 with “Let’s Live for Today” and The Grass Roots became part of the sunny-sounding pop-rock music scene of that time that also included The Mamas and The Papas, The Turtles and The Monkees.
One of The Grass Roots’ biggest hits was their 1968 song “Midnight Confessions” with Grill on co-lead vocals. The song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band eventually had 29 best-selling singles, including “Sooner or Later” and “Things I Should Have Said.” Thirteen of the songs went gold.
In 1979, Grill released a solo album, “Uprooted.”
Grill, an avid fisherman, moved to Lake County in 1985 and said he relished fishing for bass in the area lakes. He discovered Lake when his band made a stop at a Mount Dora restaurant.
“I can fish all day in a bass boat,” he told an Orlando Sentinel reporter at the time. “It’s so comfortable. Mine even has a stereo.”
Grill continued touring with his band in recent years, performing at county fairs, casinos and nightclubs.
In 2007, Grill faced three felony counts of obtaining prescription painkillers illegally. Grill said he needed the medicine to cope with the pain of six hip-replacement surgeries and a degenerative bone disorder called avascular necrosis. In Florida, it’s a felony for a patient to obtain the same prescription medicine from different doctors. Grill agreed to enroll in a pre-trial intervention program. When interviewed by the Orlando Sentinel in July 2007, Grill said he was no longer taking prescription medication and was handling the pain with aspirin.
On a music-lover’s website, his wife, Nancy Grill, wrote of her husband, “He loved his fans and he loved The Grass Roots! Thank you for all of your prayers, love and support during this time.”
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