Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Schultz.
Hi Benjamin, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in New York City and moved to Florida around age three. Music found me early. Piano at three, trumpet at five, drums at six, guitar at seven. I achieved first chair trumpet quickly in both elementary and high school and became Florida State sight reading champion two years running.
The guitar thing came naturally. Like every musician of my era, we saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and that was it. Our fates were sealed. Long before I had a driver’s license I was playing in local lounge bands in Tampa. My mom was not exactly thrilled about hanging around those places, but she was there. I had two well-known rock bands during my junior and senior year of high school. One of them became ‘The Original Wizard,’ which was also my first record. We opened for the Allman Brothers and Captain Beyond. The Tampa, Gainesville, and Jacksonville rock scene was red hot at the time. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Tom Petty were forming. Blues Image was out there. Wizard also played the Goose Lake Pop Festival in 1970 in front of over 675,000 people and was named one of the top three bands over the three-day festival. I made musician friendships there that have become some of the closest of my life.
Moving to Miami brought me into the Criteria Studios circle and more invaluable networking, including my introduction to Buddy Miles.
I moved to Los Angeles in late 1973 and immediately partnered with Buddy. We were joined at the hip. That was a rare partnership you simply do not find today. He introduced me to everyone and genuinely gave me a career. Stevie Wonder, Stephen Stills, the Rolling Stones. Since I had already met and jammed with Jimi Hendrix during my Tampa days, becoming Buddy’s guitar player came with a lot of notoriety. It also brought me into the brotherhood of The Record Plant on 3rd Street in Los Angeles, where I was introduced to and mentored by some of the greatest engineers and producers in the world: Gary Kellgren, Jack Douglas, Andy Johns, Mike Braunstein, Al Kooper, Lee DeCarlo, Lee Kiefer. I am one of only two musicians considered Record Plant Alumni. Jim Keltner is the other.
Since Buddy and I shared a house, the nightly jams were extraordinary. Dr. John, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, members of Three Dog Night, Billy Preston – all of this happening almost every night after our mandatory Rainbow Bar and Grill hang. Steve Marriott took a real shining to me. I ended up playing on his records and was in the last version of The Small Faces before his passing.
As my reputation as a session player and engineer grew, I was introduced to and mentored by Keith Olsen and Ed Cherney and fell in with the elite session community: Lukather, Nathan East, Mike Landau, John Pearce, Rudy Richman, Ollie Brown, Ray Parker Jr. It was quite the upbringing.
Since I had already met Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert back in Florida, we eventually reconnected in Los Angeles. Carmine got me the gig replacing Mike Bloomfield in a band. I ended up writing most of Carmine’s solo album, which through producer John Alcock connected me with the Thin Lizzy, Max Middleton, Bobby Tench, and John Entwistle circle, which led to meeting John Bonham and becoming close friends with Led Zeppelin’s tour manager Richard Cole. Being accepted by the English pub crowd really helped my credibility over there.
I eventually returned to session work and fell in with producer and songwriter Rick Nowels, who put me to work on everything from engineering to serving as nearly the entire demo band for the acts he produced. That led to recording with Belinda Carlisle, The Graces, and Gregg Alexander. On a Belinda session, I had the extraordinary experience of recording two songs with George Harrison. By that point my career resume was something else entirely.
After burning out on the session grind I decided to take a shot at going solo as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. It was the Steve Vai and Joe Satriani era and I fit right in. I had a Top 50 single, which led to a phone call from Harvey Leeds at Epic Records. He loved my guitar playing but was not a big fan of the instrumentals. Stevie Ray Vaughan had just passed, and Harvey said, ‘If you put a back porch band together, Epic will sign you.’ That became Barefoot Servants, with Leland Sklar on bass, Ray Brinker on drums, and Jon Butcher on vocals. We had a Top 10 single with a bullet on the Billboard Hot 100 for eleven weeks. We were in heavy rotation at 271 out of 273 major FM stations nationally. On the road we used to play unplugged live on morning radio shows before ‘unplugged’ had even become a thing. Unfortunately record company politics being what they were, we were not nineteen, we did not wear flannel, and the higher-ups at the label had no idea why we were doing so well. I owe Leland Sklar the same debt I owe Buddy Miles. Both of them made my career and boosted it at critical moments. Heartfelt thanks to you both.
I should also mention that long before I hit Los Angeles, I had a band based in Denver. We were the house band at a new Vickers Hotel, an early forerunner of the Hard Rock Hotels. Muddy Waters, Freddie King, and Howlin’ Wolf all did residencies there. All three of them saw something in me and took me aside after gigs to share what they knew. Muddy Waters and I spent the most time together. He taught me things that are only now coming into their fullest usefulness for me. And then there was that one night in Cleveland when B.B. King handed me the original Lucille, left me with his band and Johnny Winter, and went to watch and get a scotch and soda. I owe those men everything. All of them. And Jimi (Hendrix).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it was not smooth. It was difficult. I was an outsider. In many ways I still am. I did not grow up with the musicians who became the Los Angeles session community. And not being known for one specific thing hurt me more than I realized at the time. I could not be pigeonholed. Was I a guitarist? A songwriter? An engineer? A producer? That ambiguity is common and even celebrated now, but back then it was not. It is what I call the penny loafer marketing problem: one product, one vibe, easy to sell. I was none of those things and all of them at once, which made me very hard to package.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a producer, engineer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose career spans more than five decades of American rock music, I have worked alongside artists like Robert Plant, George Harrison, Buddy Miles, Stephen Stills, Rod Stewart, Johnny Winter, and B.B. King while quietly building a reputation as one of the industry’s most versatile studio craftsmen. I’m a ‘Swiss Army knife of rock and roll.’
One of my most significant collaborations came with Buddy Miles (the drummer and vocalist known for his work with Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys). I produced, engineered, composed, and performed extensively on Miles’ mid-1970s albums ‘More Miles Per Gallon’ and ‘Bicentennial Gathering of the Tribes,’ projects that blended rock, funk, soul, and psychedelia into a singular creative statement.
Buddy used to tell me, ‘I don’t want to hear it. I want to feel it,’
One late night during my early Los Angeles years while working alongside Buddy, I found myself in the middle of the kind of rock and roll moment that now feels almost mythological. Staying in a Bel Air home regularly filled with musicians after long nights at the Rainbow Room, I remember an evening when Gregg Allman unexpectedly needed a place to land after an argument with Cher. So Buddy and I went and picked him up, The rest of the night until sunrise, Gregg and I passed my acoustic guitar back and forth while he and Buddy sang the blues. Man, I wish I had a tape recorder. The memory still serves though. What a night.
Another great moment was when I was handed B.B. King’s guitar ‘Lucille’ at 16 and told to hold it down while B.B. went to get a scotch and soda. I got the chance to jam with Hendrix at 17. I’ve played alongside Robert Plant, Stephen Stills, and Duane Allman. Opened for Iron Butterfly, Chicago, Mountain, Rod Stewart, and The Allman Brothers Band and more.
Performed in front of 675,000 people.
I’ve been blessed to have collaborations and associations with Johnny Winter, Stephen Stills, Bonnie Pointer, Belinda Carlisle (on the two tracks ‘Leave a Light On’ and ‘Live Your Life Be Free’ off her ‘Greatest Hits’ ‘album with George Harrison), Ric Ocasek (The Cars), Rick Nowels, Leland Sklar, Steve Lukather, Chester Thompson, Gregg Bissonette, Mike Finnigan (longtime keyboardist for Bonnie Raitt) and more. It’s truly an honor and gift.
How do you define success?
Hitting the note and watching the audience get it. That is it. That has always been it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aboutthebenjaminhq.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebook_of_benjamin/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kokoroinc/ and https://www.facebook.com/AboutTheBenjaminHQ/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aboutthebenjamin/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@benschultz-Gtr
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/about-the-benjamin
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3UTbuGu0rmWXZIw4RYspm8
