Steve Miller

Steve Miller began his musical career in 1962 at the University of Wisconsin, where he formed a group known as the Ardells, which included classmate Boz Scaggs. Miller dropped out of college and moved to Chicago to pursue music, where he immersed himself in the city's blues scene. While there, he worked with Paul Butterfield and jammed with blues legends such as Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Howlin' Wolf. In 1967, he formed the Steve Miller Blues Band (later called the Steve Miller Band) and quickly backed Chuck Berry on his Live at Fillmore Auditorium album. In 1968, Boz Scaggs returned and recorded Children of the Future, the first Miller Blues Band album. The Steve Miller Band was quite popular in the Bay Area music scene, and they played most of the venues of the day including The Matrix, The Fillmore, and the Avalon Ballroom, but their albums performed only respectably and they failed to have a hit single. Starting in 1973, Miller changed the sound of the band to pop/rock and had his first major commercial success with the album, The Joker. The single by that name hit #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and UK singles charts.