Skunk Baxter: Hostage Negotiations in the Studio
Wong Notes
Premier Guitar
4.9 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2024
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“Skunk” Baxter has had an interesting career. The Washington, D.C.-born musician was one of Steely Dan’s founding members in the early 1970s, and played on some of their most iconic numbers, like Can’t Buy a Thrill’s’ “Reelin’ in the Years” and “Do It Again,” or Pretzel Logic’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” Then, he moved on to join the Doobie Brothers, from roughly 1974 to 1979, where he fatefully invited Michael McDonald into the band. After that stint, he became a go-to session player for artists like Rod Stewart, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, and Donna Summer, and a touring performer for Elton John and Linda Ronstadt, among others.
That was just the beginning. Baxter’s interest and background in electronics, science, and recording technology gained him a position in the U.S. defense industry. Turns out, a lot of digital music gear shared similar principles with emergent defense tech. “Basically, a radar is just an electric guitar on steroids,” says Baxter, noting the same four fundamental forces at work over everything in our universe.
Wong and Baxter trades notes on how to navigate studio sessions (“Just shut the hell up,” offers Baxter), early conversions of pitch into digital signals, and how Baxter cut his solo on Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” on a $25 guitar. And can mediating between artists and producers feel like high-stakes hostage negotiations? Sometimes.
Visit Skunk Baxter: https://www.jeffskunkbaxter.com/
Get 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywong
Hit us up: wongnotes@premierguitar.com
Visit Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.com
Visit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/wongnotespod
Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What's happening? Welcome to Wong Notes podcast. I'm your host, Corey Wong. I'm stoked today. I'm stoked today for a lot of reasons. Number one, we got Skunk Baxter on the podcast. Absolutely ledge of legends. Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers, many more. Also now, now like working some government job some like secret thing |
| 0:25.1 | he had to like get on a different computer because like the government wouldn't let him do this |
| 0:29.7 | podcast on whatever you know app we're trying to do it on so it must be some sort of important job |
| 0:36.4 | look it up i don't know. Anyway, skunks |
| 0:39.3 | a dope guitar player, incredible tones, legendary solos. Infamously, many one-take solos that are |
| 0:47.1 | some of the top solos we've ever heard. Why else am I stoked? I'm on tour right now. First |
| 0:53.4 | week of tour, it's going great. If you're on the East Coast or in the Midwest, you got to come check it out. Got a 10-piece band. Got my friend Mark Littieri joining us on guitar, too. It's a nice guitar tour. Got the band Couch opening up. We're having some fun out here. Okay? |
| 1:11.5 | Come check it out. |
| 1:13.1 | Come say hi to us. |
| 1:14.5 | We'll see you out there. |
| 1:15.2 | Hey, let's get to it. |
| 1:16.1 | Skunk Baxter. |
| 1:21.2 | Hey, you guys know about Distro Kid yet? |
| 1:23.3 | If you are an artist, musician, |
| 1:25.4 | somebody who's trying to get your music on Spotify, Apple |
| 1:28.7 | music, all of those things, Distro Kid is a digital distributor that can get your music on |
| 1:33.7 | all of those platforms. |
| 1:34.6 | It's the easiest, fastest way to do so with accounts even just starting at 1999 a year per |
| 1:40.6 | artist. |
| 1:41.4 | So for me, I have several albums out. |
| 1:43.6 | I just pay one amount for the year. |
| 1:46.0 | For all the Cory Wong albums, I just pay one amount, and Distro Kid takes zero percent royalty. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Premier Guitar, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Premier Guitar and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.