1. Jeffrey Allen "Skunk" Baxter was born on December 13,1948 and is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s and Spirit in the 1980s.
37 Facts About Jeff Baxter
1. 2.
Jeff Baxter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Doobie Brothers in 2020.
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Jeffrey Baxter was born in Washington, DC, and spent some of his formative years in Mexico.
4.
Jeff Baxter graduated from the Taft School in 1967 in Watertown, Connecticut, and was a self-described preppie.
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Jeff Baxter enrolled at the School of Public Communication at Boston University in September 1967, where he studied journalism while continuing to perform with local bands.
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At Jimmy's, Baxter met guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who was just beginning his career as a frontman.
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Later, Jeff Baxter claimed to have sat in with the Hendrix-led band Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, when the regular bassist could not make the show.
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Jeff Baxter first reached a wide rock audience in 1968 as a member of the psychedelic rock band Ultimate Spinach.
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Jeff Baxter joined the band for Ultimate Spinach III, their third and final album.
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Jeff Baxter was using the moniker "Skunk" by this time; so far, Baxter has kept the origin of the nickname a secret.
11.
Jeff Baxter appeared with Steely Dan on their first three albums, Can't Buy a Thrill in 1972, Countdown to Ecstasy in 1973, and Pretzel Logic in 1974.
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Jeff Baxter contributed an acoustic interlude and significant turns on slide and pedal steel guitar.
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In early 1979, Jeff Baxter left the band, as did drummer and band co-founder John Hartman.
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Jeff Baxter has continued working as a session guitarist for a diverse group of artists, including Willy DeVille, Bryan Adams, Hoyt Axton, Eric Clapton, Gene Clark, Sheryl Crow, Freddie Hubbard, Tim Weisberg, Joni Mitchell, Ricky Nelson, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Gene Simmons, Rod Stewart, Burton Cummings, Barbra Streisand, and Donna Summer.
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Jeff Baxter has worked as a touring musician for Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, and Billy Vera and the Beaters.
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In 1984, Jeff Baxter played keyboards with Bobby and the Midnites' Bob Weir, Billy Cobham, Bobby Cochran, Kenny Gradney, and Dave Garland at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey.
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In 1986, Jeff Baxter joined James Brown and Maceo Parker on guitar for several North American tour dates.
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In 1990, Jeff Baxter joined John Entwistle, Joe Walsh, Keith Emerson, Simon Phillips and relatively unknown vocalist Rick Livingstone in a supergroup called The Best.
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Jeff Baxter produced two albums for the hard rock band Nazareth, and produced albums for Carl Wilson, Livingston Taylor, The Ventures, and Nils Lofgren.
20.
Jeff Baxter was producer on the 1982 Bob Welch album Eye Contact.
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In 1991 Jeff Baxter produced a documentary video, "Guitar", in which he travels the world and interviews guitarists he admires.
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In 1997 Jeff Baxter scored the movie The Curse of Inferno.
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Jeff Baxter continues to do studio work, most recently on tribute albums to Pink Floyd and Aerosmith.
24.
Jeff Baxter occasionally plays in The Coalition of the Willing, a band comprising Andras Simonyi, Hungarian Ambassador to the United States; Alexander Vershbow, US Ambassador to South Korea; Daniel Poneman, formerly of the United States National Security Council and later the Obama Administration's Deputy Secretary of Energy; and Lincoln Bloomfield Jr.
25.
On June 19,2007, Jeff Baxter jammed with former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow's band Beats Workin' at the Congressional Picnic held on the White House South Lawn.
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Jeff Baxter is credited on the movie soundtrack for the feature film Roxanne as writer and producer for the songs "Party Tonight" and "Can This Be Love".
27.
Jeff Baxter appeared in the film Blues Brothers 2000 and can be heard on the cast album.
28.
Jeff Baxter's next-door neighbor was a retired engineer who had worked on the Sidewinder missile program.
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Jeff Baxter became self-taught in this area, and at one point wrote a five-page paper that proposed converting the ship-based anti-aircraft Aegis missile into a rudimentary missile defense system.
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Jeff Baxter gave the paper to California Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and his career as a defense consultant began.
31.
Jeff Baxter received a series of security clearances so he could work with classified information.
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Jeff Baxter consults for the US Department of Defense and the US intelligence community, as well as defense-oriented manufacturers such as Science Applications International Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corp.
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Jeff Baxter has appeared in public debates and as a guest on CNN and Fox News advocating missile defense.
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Jeff Baxter served as a national spokesman for Americans for Missile Defense, a coalition of organizations devoted to the issue.
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In 2000, Jeff Baxter considered challenging Representative Brad Sherman for the 24th Congressional District seat in California before deciding not to run.
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Jeff Baxter was a member of an independent study group that produced the Civil Applications Committee Blue Ribbon Study recommending an increased domestic role for US spy satellites in September 2005.
37.
Jeff Baxter is listed as "Senior Thinker and Raconteur" at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, and is a Senior Fellow and Member of the Board of Regents at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.