Ronnie Robot

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The booming bass player was born in South Africa on October 5, 1954 under the name of Ronald Friedman.  His first group that can be traced was the League of Gentlemen which was formed in 1966 with two other future group members, Allen Rosenberg (the Conglomeration period - a precursor of Rabbitt) and Neil Cloud but it soon disbanded. 

Friedman, along with Trevor Rabin (who had been in the session lineup of Rabbitt), joined Freedom’s Children and recorded one single ("State of Fear") with the group.  Around this time Ronnie changed his surname to Robot.  In 1974, he followed Rabin  into Rabbitt whose former guitarist during the session period was Friedman’s older brother, Errol.  Errol and the rest of the studio musicians had gone their separate ways and Rabbitt was formed with a new lineup that consisted of Trevor Rabin (lead vocalist/guitarist), Ronnie Robot (bassist), Neil Cloud (drummer), and Selwyn Schneider (second guitarist).

After Selwyn had left the band and been replaced by guitarist/keyboardist Duncan Faure, Rabbittmania took over South Africa.  The band made front page news in South Africa and hysteria was so rampant wherever  the group showed up that they found they sometimes could not walk  in the streets long without being mobbed. The constant pressures of living within a fishbowl environment and dealing with the internal pressures of the band led to the departure of  Trevor Rabin, leaving the group as a trio.  The trio recorded one album “Rock Rabbitt” and then called it quits shortly afterwards.

When guitarist/keyboardist Duncan Faure joined, Rabbittmania took over South Africa.  The band made front page news in South Africa and hysteria was so rampant wherever  the group showed up that they found they sometimes could not walk  in the streets long without being mobbed. The constant pressures of living within a fishbowl environment and dealing with the internal pressures of the band led to the departure of  Trevor Rabin, leaving the group as a trio.  The trio recorded one album “Rock Rabbitt” and then called it quits shortly afterwards.

For a while, Ronnie tried his hand at producing and publishing. He produced the Rabbitt CD "Collection" and was involved in the “Majors for Minors” series - an album of classical music for children as a way of helping them become better students. To this day, he still lives in South Africa and is married to a woman named Peta but it is unknown what he does now.

Update: It appears Ron Friedman may have split from Peta and married another woman, Louise Parkinson.  If this is true, then the couple also had twins: Rory and Nikita.  Both are thirteen years old (2008).  Ron also had two children with his former wife, Peta, named Dean and Terri.  It was about seven years after the birth of Terri that Ron and Peta divorced.