Steve Miller

Steve Miller

Steve Miller is an American rock musician from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, born in 1943. He is best known as the leader of the Steve Miller Band, and his work is associated with blues rock, hard rock and rock.

Early life and first bands

Miller grows up in a musical family. His father, Dr George “Sonny” Miller, is a pathologist, jazz enthusiast and amateur recording engineer, and his mother, Bertha, is a jazz-influenced singer. In 1950 the family moves to Dallas, Texas. Miller learns his first guitar chords from Les Paul, his godfather, and later studies at St. Mark’s School of Texas, where he forms The Marksmen. He also teaches classmate Royce Boz Scaggs guitar so he can join the band.

In the 1960s Miller attends the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he forms The Ardells. Scaggs later joins, and Ben Sidran is added as keyboardist the following year. Miller starts university at sixteen and leaves six credit hours short of a literature degree. Before launching his own band, he plays with Barry Goldberg in the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band, which forms in 1965 and releases one single.

Steve Miller Band

Miller forms the Steve Miller Band in 1968 and sings lead vocals on its early recordings. The group’s first album, Children of the Future, begins a run of psychedelic blues albums shaped by the San Francisco music scene. Further releases include Sailor, Brave New World, Your Saving Grace and Number 5. Boz Scaggs leaves after a couple of albums.

The band’s early period is later represented on the double-album compilation Anthology, which includes “My Dark Hour”, featuring drums by Paul McCartney.

Commercial success and later work

The Joker in 1973 begins a more pop-oriented phase in Miller’s career and includes the title track, a US number one single. The song also reaches number one in the UK in 1990 after use in a television commercial. Miller follows with Fly Like an Eagle in 1976 and Book of Dreams in 1977. These albums become the peak of his commercial success and produce hit singles including “Rock’n Me”, “Take the Money and Run”, “Jet Airliner” and “Jungle Love”.

After this period, the Steve Miller Band co-headlines a major stadium tour with the Eagles in 1977. Miller later takes a long break from recording and touring, returning in 1981 with Circle of Love. In 1982 he releases Abracadabra, his last major commercial hit. He later issues collections, live albums and occasional stylistic experiments, and stops producing records after 1993.

Collaborations and labels

Miller collaborates with Paul McCartney on Flaming Pie, McCartney’s Grammy-nominated album from 1997. His listed label includes Haworth Enterprises.