Legendary guitar player and founding member of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers Jeff “Skunk” Baxter recently sat down with Bobby G of LIU’s WCWP ahead of his June 21st performance at Tilles Center. 

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is an American guitarist known for his stints in bands including The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, and Spirit. Baxter, who hails from Washington D.C., spent many of his formative years in Mexico where despite limited access to American music, he developed a passion for rock and roll.

Like many great rockers, Baxter’s path to stardom was unconventional.  In 1967, Baxter enrolled in Boston University where he studied Journalism while commuting to NYC and Boston for sessions during his free time. 

Baxter’s real start began over breaks, where he scored jobs in New York City working at Jimmy’s Music Shop and Dan Armstrong’s Shop. It was at Jimmy’s that Baxter first met Jimi Hendrix, who was then just beginning his career as a frontman.

In 1968, Baxter joined psychedelic rock band Ultimate Spinach (where WCWP’s Bobby G was first introduced to Baxter then known by his moniker Skunk). In 1972, Baxter became a founding member of the band Steely Dan alongside keyboardist and vocalist Donald Fagen, vocalist David Palmer, drummer Jim Hodder, guitarist Denny Dias, and bassist Walter Becker. Baxter appears on Steely Dan’s first three albums, Can’t Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy, and Pretzel Logic.

In 1974 Jeff was asked to join The Doobie Brothers on Takin’ It To The Streets, Living’ On The Fault Line and Minute By Minute, which brought the Doobies a Grammy for Best Vocal Performance, and received a nomination for Album of the Year. What A Fool Believes earned three Grammys including Song and Record of the Year. Jeff was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Doobie Brothers in 2020.

Outside of music, Baxter has worked as a defense consultant for the United States government. What might seem like two completely different fields–music and defense consulting–are a natural pairing for Baxter.

“We thought turntables were for playing records until rappers began to use them as instruments and we thought airplanes were for carrying passengers until terrorists realized they could be used as missiles,” Baxter said in a 2007 interview. “My big thing is to look at existing technologies and try to see other ways they can be used, which happens in music all the time and happens to be what terrorists are incredibly good at.”

Baxter has served on the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense and NASA Exploration Systems Advisory Board. Consulting clients have included the US Department of Defense among other defense contractors.

Baxter will perform at Tilles Center at 8pm on Saturday, June 21st.

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So we’re in our 60th year here at WCWP. I started one year after the FM station signed on, way back in the day, and I remember you from, believe it or not, the Ultimate Spinach days when you ran the third album.

So I have a couple of things I want to mention. First of all, you’re going to be here on Saturday night [June 21]. Can you tell us about the band you’re playing with, etc. 

Well, it’s a fearsome band. The drummer, Mark Damien, is one of the top studio cats, unbelievable drummer. We just discovered a lead singer as well, Freddie Ravel. There’s not enough words to describe [him]. He’s played with. Al Jarreau, Earth, Wind and Fire. He’s an amazing, amazing keyboard player, good singer, and just way too much fun to have in a band 

And our bass player, Hank Horton, is again a first call studio guy [in the] Detroit, Michigan area. [He just] happens to be the bass player for the Detroit Symphony. So yes, all these guys are just amazing cats.

And how long have you been on tour?

With this current band, about a year.

There should be a good show on Saturday night over here at the [Tilles Center]. Tickets are still available. It’s eight o’clock Saturday, so that should be a lot of fun. 

One of the disc jockeys wanted to know who was your main inspiration in learning to play the guitar. Is there somebody that you were inspired by early on?

I would say it was a handful of folks. One particular guy is certainly Howard Roberts. HR is a Dirty Guitar Player and This is Howard, Color Him Funky were two records I heard back when I was a young kid.​​ They’re seminal. As I got into the studio scene in LA, every one of the other cats I was working with knew Howard and had been inspired by him. And actually later on, when I was teaching at the Guitar Institute of Technology, I did a number of things with Howard. I know his son, Jay, who’s a ferocious guitar player. Howard was a huge influence. 

The Ventures were a huge influence. I grew up in Mexico City, so my musical influences were kind of buried. I remember sending the Ventures–Bob Bogle the lead guitar player for the Ventures at the time–a fan letter. He sent me a letter back. Years later, when I started to travel with him and produce records for him and hang out with him, I still carried the letter. It was very, very kind of him. Not only were they inspirational, but we got a chance to become close friends. 

And, of course, when I was a kid working on 48th Street at Jimmy’s Music Shop and Dan Armstrong’s shop. That’s how I met Les Paul–we stayed friends forever.

How did that move come about? From Mexico City to New York?

My dad was senior vice president for J. Walter Thompson. They sent him to Latin America to cover all the Latin American stuff. My parents sent me to boarding school in Connecticut while they were still in Mexico. Vacations were pretty short, so I would usually just stay in the city and ended up working at Jimmy’s Music Shop and then for Dan Armstrong and playing gigs at night.

And you did that for a number of years, I’m sure

Yeah, then I went to Boston to go to school at Boston University. By that time, I was just starting to commute to New York to do sessions as well.

It’s really nice that the people around the radio station area can check you out at Tilles Center at LIU. That’s going to be really something special.

For more from Skunk, listen to audio from WCWP’s full, unedited interview with Baxter. Skunk Baxter will perform at Tilles Center at 8pm on June 21st. Get tickets on our website, over-the-phone, or in-person through our box office.