And the Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Soda Jaker on songwriting, we hope you're well. This is Simon here as

always with Brian and joining us for episode 244 is a renowned Grammy-winning American singer-songwriter

and guitarist.

In a recording and performing career that spans over five decades and 19 albums,

he's collaborated with the likes of Steve Miller, Donald Fagan, Bonnie Rait, David

Page, Lucinda Williams, Michael McDonald, Marcus Miller, Phoebe Snow, and David Foster to name a few.

We're delighted to welcome the mighty Buzz Gags to the show.

We've been big admirers of Boz's talent for a long time. Not only is he a great song

Ray Zettenan uneringly tasteful guitar player, but he's also a truly distinctive vocalist and a tremendous

interpreter of songs as he's proved time and again.

Our guest was born William Roy Skaggs in Canton, Ohio in 1944 and raised in Oklahoma and Texas.

He was given the nickname Boswell, later abbreviated to Bosse by a school friend.

He had a lot of R&B on the radio as a young step which would majorly impact the direction his

music career would later take. He also saw Ray Charles live in concert which he describes as an awakening.

Boz started learning guitar at the age of 12. A few years later, whilst a prep school in Dallas,

he met another promising young musician by the name of Steve Miller, who invited him to sing

for his band, The Marksman. After leaving university, our guest briefly went to London to check

out the city's flourishing blue scene, then on to Sweden Sweden where he recorded his 1965 solo debut, Boz.

He started writing his own songs around 1968, influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan and The Beatles,

and more old school writers like Hoi Carmichael and Harold Arlen.

Upon his return to the US, Boz reunited with Steve Miller, singing and playing guitar on the first two Steve Miller

Band albums, then got his own record deal with Atlantic.

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