Boz Scaggs

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William Royce "Boz" Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He gained fame in the 1960s as a guitarist and one-time lead singer with the Steve Miller Band, and in the 1970s with several solo Top 20 hit singles in the United States, including the hits "Lido Shuffle" and "Lowdown" from the critically acclaimed album Silk Degrees (1976), which peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200. Scaggs continues to write, record music, and tour.
==Early life and career==
Scaggs was born in Canton, Ohio, the eldest child of a traveling salesman. Their family moved to McAlester, Oklahoma, then to Plano, Texas (at that time a farm town), just north of Dallas. He attended a Dallas private school, St. Mark's School of Texas, where schoolmate Mal Buckner gave him the nickname "Bosley", later shortened to "Boz".
After learning guitar at the age of 12, he met Steve Miller at St. Mark's School. In 1959, he became the vocalist for Miller's band, the Marksmen. The pair later attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison together, playing in blues bands like the Ardells and the Fabulous Knight Trains.
Leaving school, Scaggs briefly joined the burgeoning rhythm and blues scene in London, then traveled on to Sweden as a solo performer, and in 1965 recorded his solo debut album, Boz, which failed commercially. Scaggs also had a brief stint with the band the Other Side with Mac MacLeod and fellow American Jack Downing.
Returning to the U.S., Scaggs promptly headed for the booming psychedelic music center of San Francisco in 1967. Linking up with Steve Miller again, he appeared on the Steve Miller Band's first two albums, Children of the Future and Sailor in 1968. Scaggs secured a solo contract with Atlantic Records in 1968, releasing his second album, Boz Scaggs, featuring the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and session guitarist Duane Allman, in 1969. Despite good reviews, this release achieved only moderate sales. He then briefly hooked up with Bay Area band Mother Earth in a supporting role on their second album Make a Joyful Noise on guitar and backup vocals. Scaggs then signed with Columbia Records; his first four albums for Columbia all charted, with his best peaking at #81.
==1976–1981: the hit years==
In 1976, using session musicians who would later form Toto, he recorded Silk Degrees. The album reached #2 on the US Billboard 200, and #1 in a number of other countries, spawning four hit singles: "It's Over", "Lowdown", "What Can I Say", and "Lido Shuffle", as well as the poignant ballad "We're All Alone", later recorded by Rita Coolidge and Frankie Valli. "Lowdown" sold over one million copies in the US.
A sellout world tour followed, but his follow-up album in 1977 Down Two Then Left did not sell as well as Silk Degrees and neither of its singles reached the Top 40. The 1980 album Middle Man spawned two top 20 hits, "Breakdown Dead Ahead" and "Jojo"; and Scaggs enjoyed two more hits in 1980-81: "Look What You've Done to Me", from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack, and "Miss Sun", from a greatest hits set. Both were US #14 hits.
==Later career==
Scaggs took a long break from recording and his next LP, Other Roads, did not appear until 1988. "Heart of Mine", from Other Roads, is Scaggs' last top-40 hit as of 2016. Also in 1988, he opened the San Francisco nightclub Slim's, and remained an owner of the venue as of 2011.
From 1989 to 1992, Scaggs joined Donald Fagen, Phoebe Snow, Michael McDonald and others in The New York Rock and Soul Revue. His next solo release was the album Some Change in 1994. He issued Come On Home, an album of rhythm and blues, and My Time: A Boz Scaggs Anthology, an anthology, in 1997.
He garnered good reviews with Dig although the CD was released on September 11, 2001. In May 2003, Scaggs released But Beautiful, a collection of jazz standards that debuted at number one on the jazz chart. In 2008 he released Speak Low, which he described in the liner notes as "a sort of progressive, experimental effort ... along the lines of some of the ideas that Gil Evans explored." During 2004, he released a DVD and a live 16-track CD Greatest Hits Live that was recorded August 2003 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.
After a break in recording, he undertook a series of shows across the US in 2008. Two years later he joined Donald Fagen and Michael McDonald for concerts entitled the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue. Scaggs's next album Memphis was released in March 2013. It was recorded in that Southern American city at the Royal Studios. The album included some of his favorite compositions from other artists. A tour of the United States, Canada and Japan followed the release. Before the year ended, he added live dates across North America and Australia for 2014. In 2015, he released A Fool to Care, a compilation of mostly covers, including "Whispering Pines" with Lucinda Williams, and one original blues composition, "Hell to Pay," performed with Bonnie Raitt. The album rose to number one on the Billboard Blues Album chart and number 54 on the Billboard 200.
==Personal life and family==
Scaggs' first marriage was to Carmella Storniola and they had two sons: Austin, a music journalist with a column called "The Smoking Section" in Rolling Stone, and Oscar, who at age 21 died of a heroin overdose on New Year's Eve in 1998 at the decrepit Hotel Royan in San Francisco.http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Heartbroken-Scaggs-Family-Speaks-Out-Against-2952463.php Scaggs and Carmella divorced in 1980http://www.beautifulboz.com/page/63132 and after a child custody battle, they were awarded joint custody of their sons.http://articles.philly.com/1994-09-09/entertainment/25838377_1_silk-degrees-boz-scaggs-parenting
Scaggs and his current wife Dominique (whom he married in 1992)http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/celeb/boz-scaggs-net-worth/ grow grapes in Napa County, California, and have produced their own wine.
==Discography==
=== With the Steve Miller Band ===
Year	Album 	US
1968	Children of the Future	134
1968	Sailor 	24
=== Solo ===
Year	Album 	US 	USR&B	RIAA Certification
1965	Boz 	— 	— 	
1969	Boz Scaggs* 	171	— 	
1971	Moments 	124	— 	
1971	Boz Scaggs & Band 	198	— 	
1972	My Time 	138	— 	
1974	Slow Dancer 	81 	— 	Gold
1976	Silk Degrees 	2 	6 	5xMulti-Platinum
1977	Down Two Then Left 	11 	— 	Platinum
1980	Middle Man 	8 	36 	Platinum
1980	Hits! 	24 	— 	Platinum
1988	Other Roads 	47 	— 	
1994	Some Change 	91 	— 	
1996	Fade into Light 	— 	— 	
1997	Come On Home 	94 	— 	
1997	My Time: A Boz Scaggs Anthology	— 	— 	
2001	Dig 	146	— 	
2003	But Beautiful 	167	— 	
2004	Greatest Hits Live 	— 	— 	
2008	Speak Low 	128	— 	
2013	Memphis 	17 	— 	
2015	A Fool to Care 	54 	— 	
* While the 1969 self-titled Atlantic album failed to chart upon initial release, it peaked at #171 when reissued in 1974. Three years later the album was reissued once again, this time in a remixed form. This version, however, only bubbled under the Billboard 200, reaching #209.
===Singles===
Year 	Title 	US 	UK 	AU 	Album
1971 	"We Were Always Sweethearts" 	61 	— 	— 	Moments
1971 	"Near You" 	96 	— 	— 	Moments
1972 	"Dinah Flo" 	86 	— 	— 	My Time
1976 	"It's Over" 	38 	— 	63 	Silk Degrees
1976 	"Lowdown" 	3 	28 	54 	Silk Degrees
1976 	"What Can I Say" 	42 	10 	2 	Silk Degrees
1977 	"Lido Shuffle" 	11 	13 	2 	Silk Degrees
1977 	"Hard Times" 	58 	— 	40 	Down Two Then Left
1978 	"Hollywood" 	49 	33 	43 	Down Two Then Left
1980 	"Breakdown Dead Ahead" 	15 	— 	64 	Middle Man
1980 	"Jojo" 	17 	— 	73 	Middle Man
1980 	"Look What You've Done to Me"	14 	— 	— 	Urban Cowboy (soundtrack)
1980 	"Miss Sun" 	14 	— 	— 	Hits!
1988 	"Heart of Mine" 	35 	— 	60 	Other Roads
Source:	Source: 	Source:	Source:	Source:	Source:
==See also==
*Notable alumni of St. Mark's School of Texas 
*Steve Miller Band
==References==
==External links==
*Boz Scaggs Official Website
*Boz Scaggs Official Fan Site
*Boz Scaggs Lyrics and information
*Boz Scaggs Official Yahoo Group
*Friends of Boz Scaggs Yahoo Group
*Boz Scaggs Last.fm Group
*October 21, 2013 on WNYC Leonard Lopate show on Memphis Album and career.
Category:1944 births
Category:American blues guitarists
Category:American male singer-songwriters
Category:American rhythm and blues guitarists
Category:American rhythm and blues singers
Category:American rock guitarists
Category:American rock singers
Category:American soft rock musicians
Category:American soul guitarists
Category:American male guitarists
Category:Blues rock musicians
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Living people
Category:Columbia Records artists
Category:Virgin Records artists
Category:Atlantic Records artists
Category:Musicians from Dallas
Category:Singers from Texas
Category:Musicians from Canton, Ohio
Category:People from Dallas
Category:People from McAlester, Oklahoma
Category:St. Mark's School (Texas) alumni
Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom
Category:American expatriates in Sweden
Category:American rock songwriters
Category:Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area
Category:Songwriters from Texas
Category:Songwriters from California
Category:Songwriters from Ohio
Category:Songwriters from Oklahoma
Category:Singers from Oklahoma
Category:Wine merchants
Category:Guitarists from California
Category:Guitarists from Ohio
Category:Guitarists from Oklahoma
Category:Guitarists from Texas