The versatile guitarist, who performs at the Belly Up on Aug. 3, is now on tour following the release of his debut solo album, 'Speed of Heat'
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a man of international intrigueThe versatile guitarist — who rose to prominence as a nimble-fingered member of Steely Dan in the early 1970s — was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of the Doobie Brothers, the band he joined after Steely Dan.
He is not, so far as is known, a secret agent. But the walrus mustachioed guitarist checks multiple boxes as a man of international intrigue. “I have a commitment with the Air Force and have to leave town tomorrow,” he explained, speaking from his Los Angeles area home. “It’s part of my day job.”Multiple day jobsHe is a consultant for the Global Security Sector of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a member of the Director’s Strategic Red Team at MIT/Lincoln Laboratories and a Senior Thinker for the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition.
“There’s so much going on — and it’s the same with problem-solving. To solve a problem correctly, you need to break it down to its smallest components and then reassemble it, in a way that gets you an answer that’s different from what you would normally get.” San Diego-bred bass guitar great Nathan East, who has performed with Baxter, voiced similar sentiments.
“It was an interesting exploration,” said Baxter, whose collaborators over the years have ranged from Joni Mitchell and Rod Stewart to jazz trumpet great Freddie Hubbard and the Argentinian rock band Enanitos Verdes. Baxter’s life can be summarized as a series of interesting explorations, starting with the classical piano lessons he began taking when he was 5.
In the second half of his teens, Baxter began working part time in Manhattan for pioneering guitar maker Dan Armstrong. Hoover’s long-buried, just-released 1970 debut album, “I Mean to Shine,” features Baxter. It was the first recording of note to team him with future Steely Dan mainstays Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.
Because of the pandemic, the band was inducted virtually into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year. Three of the group’s members have been stricken with COVID-19 this year.about you,” Baxter said. “It’s about performing — to the best of your ability — to support, satisfy and ultimately contribute to another artist’s vision.”
While helping a Los Angeles neighbor dig out from a mudslide in the late 1970s, Baxter learned the neighbor, George Webb, was a retired engineer who had helped design the Sidewinder missile for the U.S. Navy. To thank Baxter for his assistance, the neighbor gifted him with subscriptions to Aviation Week and to Jane’s Defense.
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