Happy Birthday to the American bass player Leland Sklar, who is turning 78 today! Leland who most of you will ask. Well, he is one of the musicians you most probably have heard, even though you’ve never heard his name.
Leland Sklar is a well seasoned veteran studio musician, who first paid his dues in various local bands in LA in the 1960’s. In the early 70’s he got involved with James Taylor, and that skyrocketed his career as a musician. After that he has played bass with “everyone” on the West Coast music scene in the US. And with quite few others too! Just to mention a few, there’s Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Phil Collins, Cher, David Crosby, Rod Stewart, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana…puh…you get the idea. Leland Sklar’s been “everywhere”.
To celebrate his birthday, here is a couple of tracks he plays bass on.
Warren Zevon - The Envoy
Lyle Lovett - Don’t Touch My Hat
Leland Sklar is still active as a musician. He is currently on tour with the Lyle Lovett Large Band.
Leland Sklar also has a YouTube channel, and I’d like to end this extravagantely long rant with a story I’ve heard him tell there. Once he toured with Phil Collins, along with other session musicians. One night Phil came into the dressing room saying he had a sore throat, and couldn’t reach the high notes that evening. So he asked the guys to play the songs in a lower key. The musicians sat down in a corner for 15-20 minutes, went out and did the show and it woked out just fine. Afterwards Phil Collins came backstage and said something like: “Thank God it was you guys. With Genesis it would have taken months to pull this one through.”
That’s session musicians for you! Among them is Leland Sklar. Happy Birthday 