Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliott is a globally known recording artist, front man, lead vocalist, and bass player of the band E.U. (Experience Unlimited). E.U. has had 3 billboard hits including the “Da Butt” which peaked at #1 on the US Billboard Hot Black Singles in 1988 and was also a featured performance in Spike Lee’s film “School Daze”. Also, to his credit, his group Experience Unlimited aka E.U. was not only an opening act for the commencement ceremony for the 2016 opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture but they also have an exhibit on the third floor of the museum.

Born in Red Springs, North Carolina, Gregory’s mother Ms. Ernestine Elliott moved her family to Washington, DC when he was only 2 years old and eventually settled into the Valley Green neighborhood of Southeast DC. Ms. Elliott raised her children with strong Christian values and kept them in church and school. Gregory was drawn to music at an early age.  His mother noticed his love for music and bought him a six-string guitar when he was 13 but Gregory was drawn to the bassline of music. Self-taught, he learned to play bass by watching musicians on TV.  Every day he played “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell & The Drells. He listened to other artists like James Brown and Kool & The Gang and as his tastes expanded, he discovered a love for Rock and Roll. It was also around this his after-school caretaker, Ms. Ethel Knight, gave him the name Sugar Bear, saying he started to look like the Sugar Bear on the box of Sugar Crisps he ate daily.