When Phillip Eugene Lasure was born on 1 January 1957, in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States, his father, Willie Mason LaSure, was 39 and his mother, Beatrice Elliot, was 34. He died on 6 December 2008, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States, at the age of 51, and was buried in Speedwell, Claiborne, Tennessee, United States.