Sticky Thompson
Artist. Ska, rocksteady, reggae, roots, dancehall
- Active
- 1965-2014
- Sunrise
- August 1, 1936, Hanover, Jamaica
- Sunset
- August 25, 2014, Florida, United States
- Also known as
- Uziah Thompson, Uzziah Thompson, Uziah "Sticky" Thompson
Uziah "Sticky" Thompson was a percussionist whose playing runs from Studio One ska to Sly and Robbie's international sessions, the shaker, bells and hand drums behind a great many of the best-known Jamaican records.
Born in Hanover, he started as a vocal caller for Coxsone Dodd, and his voice is on the Skatalites' "Guns of Navarone"; the Techniques' "Little Did You Know" was the first hit he played on, and asked how he managed its speed he said, "I play and stop, play and stop." He then spent five years with Lee Perry, in the Upsetters, playing on the Wailers' "Soul Rebel" and "Duppy Conqueror" and on Junior Byles's "Beat Down Babylon." At Channel One he was the percussionist in the Revolutionaries, on the Mighty Diamonds' "I Need a Roof," John Holt's "Up Park Camp" and the Wailing Souls' "War"; Sly Dunbar called him "one of the steadiest percussionists to work with." He is also on the Congos' Heart of the Congos and Culture's Two Sevens Clash.
With Sly and Robbie he played on Gregory Isaacs's "Soon Forward" and Black Uhuru's "Sinsemilla" and "Bull Inna the Pen," and in the Compass Point band behind Grace Jones's "Pull Up to the Bumper" and Tom Tom Club's "Lorelei." He described the percussionist's job as "seasoning"; Joe Muggs credits the "pots-and-pans clatter" of Culture's "Natty Never Get Weary" to him, and writes that on "Pull Up to the Bumper" his "scrapes and rattles shoot through the mix." Later he moved to Florida and recorded and toured with Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, playing on Conscious Party and One Bright Day. He departed in Florida at seventy-eight; the cause was a heart attack.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- Lee "Scratch" Perry (bandleader)
- Sly Dunbar (bandmate)
- Robbie Shakespeare (bandmate)
- The Revolutionaries (band)
- Robbie Lyn (bandmate)
- The Upsetters (band)
- Ziggy Marley (bandleader)
- Coxsone Dodd (session work)
- The Wailers (session work)
- Gregory Isaacs (session work)
- The Skatalites (session work)
- John Holt (session work)
- The Techniques (session work)
- Joseph Hill (session work)
- Wailing Souls (session work)
- Mighty Diamonds (session work)
- Black Uhuru (session work)
- Junior Byles (session work)
- The Congos (session work)
- Channel One (session work)
Notes
- Howard Campbell, "Uzziah 'Sticky' Thompson Dies," Jamaica Observer, August 26, 2014, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2014/08/26/uzziah-sticky-thompson-dies/; Joe Muggs, "Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson: The Man Who Shaped Modern Music without You Even Knowing It," Fact, August 29, 2014, https://factmag.com/2014/08/29/uziah-sticky-thompson-the-man-who-shaped-modern-music-without-you-even-knowing-it.
- Campbell, "Uzziah 'Sticky' Thompson Dies." Muggs, "Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson," which calls him a "caller" for Dodd.
- Campbell, "Uzziah 'Sticky' Thompson Dies." Muggs, "Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson," on the Upsetters.
- Campbell, "Uzziah 'Sticky' Thompson Dies." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 358, and Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 157, list him among the Revolutionaries.
- Muggs, "Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson."
- Campbell, "Uzziah 'Sticky' Thompson Dies." Muggs, "Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson."
- Muggs, "Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson."
- Campbell, "Uzziah 'Sticky' Thompson Dies," quoting his son Audley Shakespeare on the cause. The birth date is from a memorial post, "Uzziah 'Sticky' Thompson / Aug 1, 1936 - Aug 25, 2014," Peace and Rhythm, accessed October 21, 2026, https://www.peaceandrhythm.com/blogs/news/uzziah-sticky-thompson-aug-1-1936-aug-25-2014.
