Boz Scaggs

William Royce “Boz” Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was a bandmate of Steve Miller in The Ardells in the early 1960s and the Steve Miller Band from 1967 to 1968.

Scaggs began his solo career in 1969, though he lacked a major hit until his 1976 album, Silk Degrees, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200, and produced the hit singles “Lido Shuffle” and “Lowdown”. Scaggs produced two more platinum-certified albums in Down Two Then Left and Middle Man, the latter of which produced two top-40 singles “Breakdown Dead Ahead” and “Jojo”.

After a hiatus for most of the 1980s, he returned to recording and touring in 1988, releasing Other Roads and later joining The New York Rock and Soul Revue. Scaggs opened the nightclub Slim’s, a popular San Francisco music venue until it closed in 2020. He has continued to record and tour throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, with his most recent album being 2018’s Out of the Blues.

Scaggs is credited for helping the formation of Toto. For his 1976 album, Silk Degrees, he hand-picked musicians after taking suggestions from several people. These musicians were David Paich, David Hungate, and Jeff Porcaro. The three were already friends and had frequently performed together on other albums, such as Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic. By going on tour with Scaggs, it solidified the prospect of starting a band. Columbia picked up on this talent by offering the new group a contract “without audition”. Steve Porcaro described this as “a record deal thrown in our laps”. Paich stated “I’m not sure if Toto would have happened as soon, or quite the same way, without Silk Degrees”. Their friendship has continued throughout the decades shown by the varying collaborations and concerts performed together. Paich teamed up once more for Scaggs’ 2001 album, Dig, where he contributed to 6 out of the 11 songs.

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