Artist

William Royce " Boz " Scaggs

Born:

8th June 1944

Artist Bio

Singer, songwriter and guitarist William Royce "Boz" Scaggs . Born 8th June in Canton, Ohio in 1944 the eldest child to Royce and Helen Scaggs. His father was a traveling salesman who had flown in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Their family moved to McAlester, Oklahoma, then to Plano, Texas (at that time a farm town), just north of Dallas. He learned his first instrument, the cello, at the age of 9 and received a scholarship to attend a private school in Dallas, St. Mark's School of Texas. At St. Mark's, he met a future hall of famer, Steve Miller, who helped him to learn the guitar at age 12. One of his classmates wanted to give Boz a "weird" nickname. This started out as "Bosley", then "Boswell" and "Bosworth". The name was later shortened to Boz. He became a bandmate with Steve Miller a group called the Ardells in the early 1960s and a member of the Steve Miller Band from 1967 to 1968. Boz 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". He produced two more platinum-certified albums in Down Two Then Left and Middle Man, the latter of which produced the 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 album Other Roads and later joining the New York Rock and Soul Revue. Boz opened the nightclub Slim's, which became a popular music venue in San Francisco (unfortunately this closed in 2020). He is credited for helping with the formation of the band 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 Boz, it solidified the prospect of starting a band. Columbia picked up on this talent by offering the new group a contract "without audition". Their friendship has continued throughout the decades, shown by the varying collaborations and concerts performed together. He has continued to record and tour throughout the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, with his most recent albums being 2018's Out of the Blues and 2025's Detour.

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