Fred Hammond on BWE Empowerment Radio

Fred Hammond is a Musician/Singer from Detroit Michigan. Born to Mildred Hammond in 1961, Hammond was one of 3 boys. (His brothers are Ray Hammond Jr. and Dave Hammond.) Having a background in church and music from a young age, Fred's first instrument was drums and eventually progressed to bass and piano. (Bass being his most prominent instrument.) After high school, he joined the U.S. Army along with a close friend of his Mitchell Jones. After they had gotten out of the Army, the two began to get involved in music ministry together. Hammond then auditioned to play bass for the Gospel singing group the Winans and toured with them from 1980 to 1982. Upon returning to Detroit, he and Mitchell Jones, along with 4 other friends (Karl Reid, Fred's Brother-in-Law Keith Staten, Michael Brooks and Michael Williams) formed the Gospel recording group "Commissioned." The group traveled the country doing singing engagements, establishing their fan-base and raising money to record an album. In 1985 under "Light Records", they released their first full album "I'm Going On." The group released 4 more albums under Light Records. (1986 "Go Tell Somebody"/ 1987 "On The Winning Side"/1988 "Will you be Ready?"/1989 "Ordinary just won't do") In 1990 the group moved to "Benson/Verity Records" and recorded their sixth album "State of Mind." This was the last album to be recorded by the group's original line-up as members Keith Staten and Michael Brooks left the group to pursue solo careers. New members Marvin Sapp, Maxx Frank, and Eddie Howard, Jr were welcomed before the group released their seventh album in 1991, which was simply titled "Number 7." This same year, Commissioned recorded an album with recording Artist, Carman called "Shakin' the House: Live." I