Artist Spotlight - Greg Douglass
Guitarist, songwriter, sideman, band leader, and teacher Greg Douglass has been playing guitar since 1968. the same year that Pat started QSC. His influences were The Ventures, Dick Dale, Jeff Beck, The Beatles and Leo Kottke.
From his site...
Greg's "acid-rock" band, COUNTRY WEATHER, shared the stage at the Fillmore & Avalon Ballrooms with Sly & the Family Stone, Ten Years After, Jeff Beck Band, Santana, and many others. (They were booked by Bill Graham's Millard Agency.) As Greg's reputation as a guitarist grew, he went out on his first tour with VAN MORRISON, singer for Them and writer of "Gloria", "Brown Eyed Girl", "Wild Nights", "Domino", and many more masterpieces. When Van took a hiatus, Greg toured with HOT TUNA, the spin-off band from the Jefferson Airplane featuring guitarist Jorma Kaukonen & bassist Jack Cassidy. When Greg & Hot Tuna parted company, he became a founding member of TERRY & THE PIRATES; A loose-knit posse of "between jobs" players who came together playing the late songwriter Terry Dolan's tunes, including Quicksilver guitar legend John Cippolina (they were dubbed "the psychedelic Duane and Dickie"), monster bassist David Hayes, Dan Hicks' violinist Sid Paige, etc..... Over 30 "pirates" circulated through the band over the years.
He made a lot of friends in this band and ended up in THE STEVE MILLER BAND. Greg had co-written the song "Jungle Love" with Miller bassist Lonnie Turner while in Terry and the Pirates. The song was a smash hit and Greg stayed with Steve for four years, touring, recording, earning 5 platinum albums designating sales of 12 million units and a BMI award for over one million radio & television performances of "Jungle Love". (That's Lennon/McCartney territory!)
When Steve took a break, Greg went to Europe to play "electric bluegrass" with PETER ROWAN. Peter was a great bluegrass player who wanted to experiment in other areas. When that tour was over, Greg got a call to join TOM JOHNSTON (the lead singer for the Doobie Brothers). When Tom took a break from the Doobie Brothers, Greg became second guitarist in a band that included the legendary Memphis Horns. Greg worked with Tom for several years.
The first song he recorded with THE GREG KIHN BAND was "Jeopardy", which became a number one single on both the pop and black/dance charts. The video to the song was one of the first MTV videos. (He also played on "American Bandstand", where Dick Clark tripped over his enormous feet, and appeared on "Saturday Night Live" with guest host Howard Cosell.) Greg toured and recorded for four years with the Kihn band. Greg co-wrote and played guitar on "Trinidad" from EDDIE MONEY's "Playing for Keeps" album. TOM FOGERTY (a founding member of Creedence Clearwater Revival) hired Greg for his "Deal it Out" album on Fantasy Records and he was a member of Tom Fogerty's All Star guitar band. Greg fulfilled a longtime dream when harmonica virtuoso PAUL BUTTERFIELD requested his presence on all his Northern California appearances. They became friends and remained so until the time of Paul's untimely demise. Greg joined THE FORMER MEMBERS, a group consisting of members of Country Joe & the Fish and the Blues Project. They spend several weeks in Europe every year.
A few years ago, Greg got a phone call from blues legend Nick Gravenites asking him to step into the shoes of the founder and original guitarist of THE ELECTRIC FLAG, Mike Bloomfield. They tour intermittently, from California to Quebec. Nick introduces Greg onstage as one of the "Sons of Bloomfield". It's an honorific Greg does not take lightly.
Greg toured with BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING COMPANY, the backing band for the great Janis Joplin who also made a huge splash at the Monterey festival, and played one of their last shows with founding guitarist Sam Andrew in Catanzaro, Italy in September of 2014. Greg is a member of THE MONSTERS OF CLASSIC ROCK, a band put together for large corporate events. Members have included Chris Slade (drummmer for AC/DC, The Firm), Simon Wright (drummer for AC/DC), Mario Cippolina (bassist for Huey Lewis), Rick Derringer (guitarist for The McCoys and Edgar Winter), Carmine Appice (drummer for Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart and Blue Murder), Carmine Rojas (bassist for David Bowie and Rod Stewart, and....you get the picture.) DEVA PREMAL and her partner, Miten, are the number one selling mantra music/meditation group in the world, having sold over one million CDs in this very specialized market. Greg guests with the band when they play on the west coast.
Which brings us to this moment where, after 7 years of burning through the club scene with the Greg Douglass Band, Greg made personnel adjustments and formed GREG DOUGLASS AND THE SIDEWINDERS, a frighteningly good group that's more blues/surf/rockabilly and coiled & ready to strike than his former band.
Today Greg gigs and records using an Aviator Mach 3 .