Born June 8 1944 William Royce Scaggs was raised in Oklahoma and Texas. He met future collaborator and friend Steve Miller while attending school in Dallas, TX. The two joined forces in the `Marksmen Combo' before attending University of Wisconsin together, and eventually forming the `Ardells', later changing the name to the `Fabulous Knight Trains'.

In 1963 Scaggs parted company with Miller and returned to Dallas as the front man for the `Wigs'. The band moved to England and almost immediately broke up, with John Andrews and Bob Arthur leaving to form `Mother Earth'. Scaggs stayed in Europe as a street performer. In 1965 he recorded a miserable solo album, `Boz'.

Scaggs returned to the states in 1967, and rejoined Miller in his new `Steve Miller Band' just in time for the Monterey Pop Festival. Scaggs recorded two great albums with the `Steve Miller Band', `Children of the Future' and `Sailor', before cutting out to retry a solo career in 1968.

The Publisher of Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner talked Atlantic into giving Scaggs a contract, and he responded with the acclaimed and self titled `Boz Scaggs', featuring an appearance by Duane Allman. Fenton Robinson sued for composer credit on the track `Loan Me a Dime' and won, costing Scaggs his contract with Atlantic.

Scaggs signed with Columbia in 1971 and released `Moments'. Like the previous album, it was well acclaimed but sold poorly. Scaggs remained a favorite of the critics while doing poorly on the charts for several years.

1976's `Silk Degrees' reached number two in album sales, with two singles `Lowdown' and `Lido Shuffle' making it to the top ten. His next two albums, `Down Two, Then Left' and `Jo Jo' did just as well, but by the 1980's Scaggs had pretty much retired from music.

He had bought Slim's, a nightclub in San Francisco and spent his time managing it, performing only at the clubs annual New Years Eve concert. In 1988 he released `Other Roads' and toured with Donald Fagen's Rock and Soul Revue in 1991. He recorded `Some Change' in 1994 and followed it with 1997's `Come on Home.'

Sources
www.cdnow.com