Leonard Nelson Hubbard (1958/1959 – December 16, 2021), also known simply as Hub, was an American musician who was best known for being the bass guitarist for

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's '' The Tonight Show Starring Jimm ...

, a

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

band, from 1992 to 2007. He played on all of their records until his departure from the group, including 1999's '' Things Fall Apart'' and 2004's '' The Tipping Point''. He was known for always having a chew stick in his mouth, both on and off the stage. Hubbard studied at Settlement Music School during his youth in Philadelphia, then went on to study classical upright bass at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsyl ...

. Hub played his last show with The Roots on June 7, 2008, at the first annual Roots Picnic. Hub lived in

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...

. He was diagnosed with

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, ane ...

in 2007, and died from the disease at Lankenau Medical Center in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, on December 16, 2021, at the age of 62. He was interred at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery ...

in Philadelphia.

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* * 1950s births 2021 deaths 20th-century American bass guitarists 21st-century American bass guitarists American male bass guitarists American male guitarists Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania Deaths from multiple myeloma Guitarists from Philadelphia The Roots members {{US-bass-guitarist-stub