Raymond Curtis Monette was born on May 7, 1946. He started his career as a session musician with Motown. He was also a songwriter and, in 1967
Detroit started a band called The Abstract Reality, who released a
45 rpm single "Love Burns Like A Fire Inside". He formed
Scorpion with
Mike Campbell,
Bob 'Babbitt' Kreinar and Andrew Smith. His name appears on
Scorpion and
Meat Loaf's debut album
Stoney & Meatloaf (1971). For that recording, Monette co-wrote four songs. That same year, he played tenor guitar on "Evolution" by
Dennis Coffey & the Detroit Guitar Band, and played a guitar solo on
Funkadelic's "I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody's Got A Thing". He was guitarist and singer for
Rare Earth from 1971 until 2004 (with a break around 1977). Monette played guitar on one of Rare Earth's most memorable singles, "
I Just Want to Celebrate" and was the guitarist on the gold-selling 1971 live album,
Rare Earth in Concert. In 2010, Monette played on the
Phil Collins album,
Going Back. Monette died on April 9, 2026, at the age of 79. ==References==