Junkyard Band Bassist, Passenger Die In Motorcycle Crash

By Ally Schweitzer

Update, 11:40 a.m.: At the request of “House” Colquitt’s friends and family, organizers of the Funk Parade are asking for photos and video of Junkyard Band’s show on Saturday. Share your images and video on Facebook and tag Funk Parade or email them to funk@funkparade.com.

Original post:

Just one day after his band rocked the Funk Parade off U Street, Junkyard Band bassist and manager Derek Anthony “House” Colquitt, 47, died Sunday afternoon in a motorcycle crash in Waldorf, Maryland. His passenger Jeri Lanelle Whorton, 34, died later of her injuries at Prince George’s Hospital, according to Maryland State Police.

Police say Colquitt and Whorton were riding a 2013 Harley-Davidson on 301 in Maryland, and Colquitt “failed to control” the bike’s speed, colliding with a Dodge Ram and catching fire. Colquitt died at the scene. Whorton, who was not wearing a DOT-approved helmet, was ejected from the motorcycle.

The prior afternoon, Junkyard Band played Funk Parade at the Lot at Atlantic Plumbing.

Junkyard was one of D.C.’s biggest go-go bands, starting in 1980 out of the Barry Farm community in Southeast Washington. The band “used buckets and cans because these young kids of the projects… at time did not have enough money to purchase real equipment. They used whatever they found to play, and they didn’t let anyone or anything [stop] them from playing,” according to the group’s biography. The band was particularly well known for its 1986 song “Sardines,” released along with “The Word” on Def Jam.