I received a free ticket to the event called life in 1947. The location: Ames, Iowa. Nothing interesting happened for the first twelve years of my life while living in Los Altos Ca. I was just a normal kid doing normal kid things until I discovered my love of music. I was about thirteen years old. I listened to anything and everything I could. I drew my Father crazy. I knew all the pop/rock stations in the area and I even could pick up the LA stations (KFWB and KRLA) at night.
I grew to love Surf Music and found out that you could actually play along with a guitar. The first guitar I ever saw was a Danelectro Sunburst hanging in the local music store and it set me on fire! I worked odd jobs and saved my money to buy my first guitar; a red Sears Silvertone. Dick Dale, The Ventures were my heroes and I was on a quest to learn all of their songs.
Things changed when my father moved our family to Marin County, Ca. just north of San Francisco in 1962. Folk music was coming into popularity and I threw myself into it fully. I had outgrown my Silvertone and needed a really good acoustic guitar. My parents bought me a Gibson J-45 and I was on my way to learn as many chords and songs as I could. Bob Dylan had a big influence on me at the time and I could play most of his tunes. My guitar playing was starting to blossom and I thought it would be my main instrument of choice. I was content playing folk music until a Sunday night in February 1964. My life was about to change again in a big way.
That night everyone was tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show when Beatles performed. It set me on fire again for the second time in my life. I wanted to play Rock and I wanted to go electric again. I had found my true calling. I had to get a really good electric guitar and I found it in what was to be the first of my two Rickenbacker guitars.
Around 1965 I was to meet someone who would change my life again in a way I could never imagine. His name was Richi Ray Harris.
We both attend Redwood High School in Larkspur, California. Everyone at school gravitated to there own group and musicians were no different. Richi had a band and I was eager to get into one. We started to play school rallies and such with classmate and drummer Don Banducchi. It was fun to play in front of a live audience who just happened to be the entire student body.
Richi and I started playing at a weekly jam session in a basement in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Anyone could stop by and sit in. It was about this time the band “Freedom Highway” was taking shape. I was happy playing rhythm guitar when Richi was about to give me one of the best gifts of my life. I remember we were rehearsing one day when the Bass player and Richi got into a shouting match and the Bassist quit. He looked at me and said “Put down the Guitar and pick up the Bass”. I still thank him today for that call. The Bass was a natural for me since I had big hands and it remains my main and favorite instrument.
It was an exciting time in the early 1960’s and the best was yet to come. While playing the 1090 Page Street jam session one night when Bill Graham, the soon to be “Rock Impresario” dropped in, liked us and gave us our first big break: playing the Fillmore Auditorium. This was musical Mecca in San Francisco and all the greats of the time played there. He got us into the local Musicians Union #6 even though Richi was only sixteen years old at the time.
Our first show was with Buffalo Springfield [with Neil Young and Steven Stills] and the Steve Miller Blues Band. The dates were April 28th, 29th and 30th, 1967. A gig I will never forget. Playing The Fillmore was real honor and to step on that stage where other great’s had played before was a thrill.
As the band progressed other venues began to open up for us, most notably the Avalon Ballroom at Sutter and Van Ness in San Francisco. Founder Chet Helms was the promoter with Glenn McKay's light show “Head Light’s” providing the visuals. During this time we were fortunate to play other venues and were happy to share the stage with the likes of: Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Co., Jefferson Airplane, The Greatful Dead, The Doors, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Clover and just about every good band in the San Francisco Bay area.
The greatest night of all the dates we played was the New Years Eve concert, December 31st, 1967 at the old Winterland Ballroom, just a couple of blocks from the original Fillmore. Bill Graham was a man I greatly respected and he really knew how to put on a great show and this one was no different. Playing before a packed house with great bands, great people and great music was a trip. Another night I will never forget. Not bad for a nineteen year old guy from Marin.
A couple of months after the New Years Eve concert, Richi and I made a bold move. We let the rest of the band go and brought in the talented drummer and vocalist Bruce Brymer. We where now a Power-Trio. We were three guys with three different instruments. Most trios are to thin musically, while missing another guitar or keyboards. Bruce, Richi and I filled the void successfully. In my opinion I thought at the time that this was best lineup of the “Highway’’. I was to be proven wrong later.
On March 10th 1968, Richi, Bruce and I recorded what was to be the only tracks as trio. The place was the Sausalito Ca. Heliport. All the rooms were rented out as rehearsal space for bands and we would record in one of them. The late,great Bruce Walford recorded and produced five songs on a 1/4 inch tape machine. The recordings were not “state of the art” but our enthusiasm and talent shined thru. This was a live session with limited overdubs. Later that year we added the gifted Gary Philippet on guitar and vocals. This was to be the best and last lineup of Freedom Highway with myself in the band.
In 1969 I left the group at height of our popularity and talent. Richi, Bruce and Gary nearly fainted when I told them I was going to enter military service: The United States Air Force. Unfortunately I would never see Gary again. I went to fulfill my military duty and seek adventure. It never happened. I was given a Honorable Discharge four months later for medical reasons.
When I got back I entered College of Marin as a music major. I Left about a year later to play and record music again. One was a demo with my friends Kent Housman and "The Ducks". Shortly after that I would meet William Seivers (AKA W.Truckaway). I got to play and record with the many musicians who passed through Will’s Heliport Studio. He gave me the keys to it and I took advantage of playing Piano and record anything I wanted to at anytime. I will always be in his debt forever for his trust and kindness.
At his studio I got record with the talented Rex Larson. We soon became friends and we recorded many of his great songs with no end of good musicians. In 1974 Rex and I decided to move to the "real" musical Mecca. Los Angeles. My life was about to change again.
We settled in to the LA music scene and did some sessions with producer Eric Jacobson (Lovin’ Spoonful, Norm Greenbaum). One was with drummer Jeff Pocaro (Toto) and the great bassist Carol Kaye. I was playing piano for that session and when Ms.Kaye entered the studio I knew that I was in the presence of greatness. As a Bass player myself I was in awe and when she warmed up on her powder blue P-Bass my jaw hit the ground. She was Great!
Those were to be my last recordings with Rex. We both went our separate ways shortly after that. About this time I switched instruments from Bass to Pedal Steel Guitar. My second favorite instrument. I started playing Steel around 1973 and did not play Bass again until 1979. Pedal Steel Guitar is not an easy instrument to learn and play but I had many good teachers including; Joe Goldmark and Steve Fishell. I even went to Nashville to study with Jeff Newman at his school for the Pedal Steel Guitar.A few years ago I was saddened to learn that Jeff had died in a small plane crash. He was a great Steel Guitarist, teacher and a real southern gentleman. Rest in peace Jeff.
Country music was hot at that time and I think I played every Bar and Honkey Tonk in LA in the San Fernando Valley. I drifted from band to band looking for steady work. It was about that time I got in touch with film director Don Hullette through a friend of his and did two movie soundtracks with him. One was Chuck Norris’s first film. These films were never going to win an Academy Award and probably wound up in a place like Del Rio,Texas playing at an all night drive in.
I went back to playing clubs trying to make ends meet and pay the rent. As luck would have it I got a job at Westwood Music in West LA. Fred Wylecki was the owner and soon would become a good friend. He helped me get my first Emmons Pedal Steel Guitar, something I would never have been able to do on my own. Every major musician in LA came through those doors and I got to meet most of them. I was inspired and honored just to be in there presence. I will always be indebted to Fred for rest of my life for his kindness, advice and trust.
In the Spring of 1979 I had enough. I fought LA and LA won. I decided to move back to Marin County California so I could unwind and catch my breath. I gave away most of my furniture to friends and made two trips up I-5. I stayed with my sister Susy for six months trying to figure out what my next move would be.
I had mixed emotions about leaving the LA Southland. I accomplished most of what I set out to do but the pace of LA was beginning to take it’s toll on my health and well being. I quickly joined a band when I got back playing Steel Guitar but even then I knew this group would not last even though it produced a record, a TV appearance with Al “Jazzbeau” Collins and opening a concert for Hank William’s Jr.
I wanted to join a group that would last more than six months and I would soon get my wish.
I don’t know how I fell into the next group "The Country Music Company". The band was not that great but two of the members stood apart from the others; singer and guitarist Vikki Lee and drummer Jamie Leese. Vikki, Jamie and I would leave that band and form our own group; "Four Wheel Drive". We must have played a hundred gigs together and went through two fine guitar players. I was grateful for being able to play Bass again. I had no idea how much I missed it.I knew I had to focus on it making it my main "Axe". Being able to play Bass and Steel Guitar in "4WD" was a thrill.
The high point of Four Wheel Drive was in my opinion the EP (extended play) record we made with the talented and old school mate of mine; John McKindle. He wrote all four of the songs, played all the guitar parts, piano and even sang backing vocals. It was recorded on an eight track machine in San Rafael,Ca. It was topped off by Johns sterling production and was released on Vikki’s label: Spud Records.
About this time the country boom was starting to wain and if we wanted to make a living we would have to play music that people could dance to. Jamie and (the late, great) guitarist Carl Brouse had just left the group. Vikki wanted to go in whole new direction. Forming a new band that eventually would turn into: “Vikki Lee and the Convertibles”. I was tagged to follow, playing Bass.
Vikki was a very savvy business person and was able to book us into clubs so we could actually make a living. I don’t know how she did it. We had added an excellent keyboard man and vocalist; Jeff Mhel and we had a revolving door of guitarist’s and drummers on club dates. They were all good musicians and we played mostly ‘60’s and ‘70’s dance music. It was very easy for them to fit right in.
We spent many hours in the studio recording demos and at our zenith we recorded Kevin Hayes original song “Love’s Got a Hold on Me” along with a cool video to go along with it. This would be the last recording session I would do with Vikki and the Convertibles. The beginning of the end was about to unfold.
In the summer of 1985 we were doing our weekly gig, in a San Rafael,Ca. club called the "Tree House". A Las Vegas hotel owner who happened to be in the audience, liked what he heard and offered us a month long gig in Sin City. The place was the Silver Slipper, a bar, casino and showroom. Everyone was in the band was eager to play Las Vegas except me but I eventually caved in and said yes.
I had played that town before and new the routine of playing lounges. The day we arrived it was a 115 degrees and never went below 100 the entire time we were there. We all wore matching ruffled shirts and took the name “Lounge Lizards” to new heights. If I had to sum up that month in Las Vegas it would be: A Disaster! The last night we played we packed up our gear after our last set and without sleep drove the ten hour drive home. Marin county never looked so good.
Something was about to happen to the band and I new it would come soon but I didn’t know that it would effect me. A week later I was asked to leave the band. What I didn’t know at the time was they were actually be doing me a favor. I was replaced by another bassist and I would learn later that the “Con’s...” had broken up for good a few months later. I needed a break from playing clubs. I wanted a breather and a time out to reflect what had just happened.
I had been married to my wife Elsa for about three years and we were living in a townhouse just outside of Fairfax, Ca. We hardly saw each other except on the weekends because she worked days and I worked nights. I decided I would get a day job and try to live a normal life. I was "Workin' For A Livin'"!
I sold my Pedal Steel Guitar and put my Bass in the closet, not to touch it for fifteen years. I held down a day job for all those years and my wife and I would move around until we settled in Sonoma County California, about fifty miles north of San Francisco. Working during the day and sleeping nights was different to me but I finally got used to it.
Around the year 2000 I pulled my G&L Bass out of the closet. I wanted to see what kind of chops I still had. To my surprise I had not lost a step and it was like picking up where I had left off. The only difference was I had lost my callus’s on my fingers from not playing. Holding a Bass guitar near to me felt good and natural.
I kept working a day job until late in 2005 when I had a freak accident falling and breaking every bone in my right ankle. I had a metal plate put in and had months of physical therapy. My days of working a day job was over for good. I retired. My wife and I bought a home in Santa Rosa California where we still live today with our two Parrots. We have four grand kids. I have time to practice my Bass and I have taken my playing to a whole new level.
Looking back I have had a incredible life doing some things other people just dream about. I have been fortunate to play and record some great musicians and producers. I would like to thank all of them. Some of them you would recognize, some not. They are: Richi Ray Harris, Howard Lazzarini, Kurt Eiechstsedt, Mike Lamb, Bruce Brymer, Gary Philippet, Bruce Walford, Kent Houseman, Rex Larsen, Eric Jacobson, Jack Adams, David Mann, John McKindle, Vikki Lee, Terry Medeiros, Carl Brouse, Amos Garrett, Jeff Pocaro,(The Great!) Carol Kaye, William (Truckaway) Seivers, Todd R.,Hutch Hutchenson, Norman Mayall, Kevin Hayes, Val Feuenties, Kenny Dale Johnson, Freedom Highways manager;George Smith, Bill Graham and Chet Helms just to name a few.I would also like to thank Mike Somavilla for putting "Made In '68" together and for being a good friend. If I have forgotten anybody please forgive me. I want to thank my lovely wife Elsa for sticking with me through good times and bad. I owe her a debt I can never repay. I would also like to thank just about everyone I have ever met in my life for bringing me along this far.
I don’t know what God has is store for me but I do know this; my best days are ahead of me. My desire to play music has never been stronger and it will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Thank you for reading this and may God Bless.
Scott Inglis.