Question: What types of music did this American guitarist and singer-songwriter who released the song "Fly Like an Eagle" play in the beginning of his music career?

Context articles: Greatest Hits 1974–78
Fly Like an Eagle (album)
Rollin' in My 5.0
Fly Like an Eagle (song)
Rock'n Me
Fly Like a Bird
Steve Miller (musician)
Time Keeps On Slippin'
Take the Money and Run (song)
Fly Like Me

Greatest Hits 1974–78 is a compilation album by the Steve Miller Band released in November 1978.
 It has sold 14 million copies in the United States and is ranked 37th on the Recording Industry Association of America list of best selling albums.
 It also achieved Diamond certification in Canada (1,000,000 units) in 2003.
 Two singles that reached No. 1 are "The Joker", which topped the charts on January 12, 1974 and "Rock'n Me" on November 6, 1976.
 As a sign of the album-oriented rock times, all but one track came from their last two albums even though they had eleven studio albums at the time.
 A prior greatest hits album, 1972's "Anthology", contained songs from the first five albums.
 The more comprehensive "Young Hearts: Complete Greatest Hits" in 2003 added early hits "Living in the U.S.A.", "My Dark Hour", "Space Cowboy", and "Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma" and later hits "Abracadabra", "Who Do You Love", "I Want to Make the World Turn Around", "Wide River", and "Cry Cry Cry", but dropped this album's "True Fine Love" and "Winter Time".
 On this 1978 album/CD release, the shorter 7-inch single versions of "Jet Airliner", "Swingtown", "The Joker", and "Fly Like an Eagle" are used.
 On the 2003 compilation, the original album versions are used (although the track "Fly Like an Eagle" still fades out earlier than its album counterpart).
Fly Like an Eagle is the ninth studio album by American rock group Steve Miller Band.
 The album was released in May 1976 (see 1976 in music) by Capitol Records in North America and Mercury Records in Europe.
 A Quadraphonic mix of the album was available on the Quadraphonic 8-Track cartridge format (in which Track 1 - "Space Intro" is edited into "Fly Like an Eagle" as one track, and Track 6 - "Take the Money and Run" intro repeats twice).
"Rollin' in my 5.0" is a hip hop song written by American rapper Vanilla Ice.
 The song samples ""Fly Like an Eagle"" by the Steve Miller Band.
 The studio version of the song was only found on the single as it was originally intended to be featured on "Mind Blowin".
 It is about Vanilla Ice's iconic 5.0 Liter Foxbody Mustang (Ford Mustang (third generation)).
"Fly Like an Eagle" is a song written by Steve Miller for the album of the same name.
 The song went to number 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart during the week of March 12, 1977, kept from the top spot by "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" by Barbra Streisand.
 The single edit can be found on "Greatest Hits (1974–1978)".
 The song has an unusually mellow and "dreamy" feel.
 It is usually played in tandem with "Space Intro", but the song also segues into "Wild Mountain Honey".
"Rock'n Me" (also known as "Rock 'N Me") is a song by American rock group Steve Miller Band, written by the group's leader Steve Miller.
 The song was released as the second single from the group's ninth studio album "Fly Like an Eagle" in 1976; Miller also produced the song and album as well as performed on it.
 The North American release of the single was generally credited to Steve Miller as a person, while the European release was generally credited to the Steve Miller Band as a whole group.
"Fly Like a Bird" is a song by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey, first released on February 13, 2006 by Island Records as the sixth single from her tenth studio album, "The Emancipation of Mimi" (2005).
 Written and produced by Carey and James "Big Jim" Wright, the song is influenced by Gospel, soul, and R&B music genres.
 Its arrangement is built on piano chords and guitar melodies, and features Carey's pastor Clarence Keaton, who recites two Biblical verses during the song's introduction and bridge.
 Carey described "Fly Like a Bird" as the most personal and religious track from "The Emancipation of Mimi", with its lyrics featuring a veritable prayer to God: "Fly like a bird, take to the sky, I need you now Lord, carry me high!"
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Steven Haworth "Steve" Miller (born October 5, 1943) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter, known as leader of the Steve Miller Band.
 He began his career in blues and blues rock and evolved to a more pop-oriented sound which, from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, resulted in a series of highly popular singles and albums.
 Miller was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of their class of 2016.
"Time Keeps On Slippin" is the fourteenth episode in season three of the animated television series "Futurama".
 It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 6, 2001.
 The title is from a lyric in "Fly Like an Eagle" by Steve Miller Band.
 Basketball and time-travel play a prominent role in this episode.
"Take the Money and Run" is a song recorded in 1976 by the Steve Miller Band.
 A song about two young (possibly teenage) bandits and the police officer pursuing them, it was one of the many hit singles produced by the Steve Miller Band in the 1970s and featured on "Fly Like an Eagle".
 The song peaked at #11 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 and also charted well in Australia.
"Fly Like Me" is a song by American rapper Chingy.
 It is the first single from his fourth album "Hate It or Love It" (2007).
 It features singer Amerie and has, in Chingy's words, a "mainstream feel" similar to that of the 2005 single "Pimpin' All Over the World" by rapper Ludacris, who was originally to have been featured on the song alongside singer Rihanna.
 The song was released on November 13, 2007 but was a commercial failure as it stalled at number 89 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, however it went to number 40 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
 From October 12, "Fly like Me" was available for streaming on Def Jam Recordings' official website.