Peter Wolf

All Music Guide:

Best known for his tenure fronting the J. Geils Band, singer Peter Wolf was born and raised in the Bronx, and came from a family active in show business. His father was a dancer, song plugger, disc jockey, and singer of light opera; his mother, an organizer for the civil rights and labor movements, was a teacher for inner-city children in the Bronx. Wolf's earliest passion was painting, and he was accepted on a scholarship to the Museum of Modern Art's Special Studies for Children, and later to the High School of Music and Art, just blocks from the Apollo Theater, where the young Wolf would make weekly visits. Seeing performers like Jackie Wilson, Dinah Washington, Otis Redding, and James Brown sparked his early interest in blues and R&B. After graduating from high school, he hitchhiked through the Midwest; in Chicago, he became involved in a couple of blues and folk music societies while studying painting at the University of Chicago. While there, he visited the South Side blues clubs, drawing influences from the musicians he saw there.

With a grant to study at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, he became a disc jockey on WBCN-FM, hosting a show called The All-Night House Party. The show touched on many musical bases, and reflected Wolf's own broad musical interests. While still in college in Boston, Wolf joined his first musical group, comprised of fellow art students. They played blues music, and later got to meet and tour with their heroes like John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. In 1967, he formed the group that would go on to become the J. Geils Band, which began playing clubs around New England. Their first big break was a chance to play at the Fillmore East in New York City, and they became known for their marathon live performances, with Wolf establishing a reputation as a particularly dynamic frontman. The group was signed to Atlantic Records by producer/impresario Jerry Wexler, and toured constantly over the next couple of years, performing as special guests with the Rolling Stones throughout the U.S. and Europe. At one of these concerts, Wolf met actress Faye Dunaway, whom he later married for a short time.

In 1983, the group was at the height of its popularity, and had gone 17 years without a personnel change. Finally, the bandmembers went their separate ways and Wolf went on to produce numerous film soundtracks and run art exhibits of his original paintings. In 1984, he released his first solo album, Lights Out, followed in 1987 by Come as You Are, which spurred the hit single of the same name. In between albums he worked on duets with Mick Jagger and Aretha Franklin, who recruited him specifically for her Who's Zoomin' Who album. In 1989, after a six-month songwriting retreat in Nashville, he recorded his third solo album, Up to No Good, which appeared the following year. In 1994, Wolf assembled a group of musicians and began playing clubs as a way to test out newer material on live audiences. It was the live feeling he so successfully captured on Long Line, his 1996 Reprise release. While on tour in 1997, Wolf met producer Kenny White, and together the pair recorded Fool's Parade, which was released in 1998 on Mercury. It was selected by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the "50 most influential records of the decade." In 1998, he toured with the Royal Soul Review, a star-studded gathering of soul artists including Lloyd Price, Chuck Jackson, Sam Moore, Ben E. King, Irma Thomas, Percy Sledge, Gene Chandler, and Jerry Butler. Soon after, Wolf was asked to record with blues great Little Milton. They worked at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and are featured on the Malaco album Welcome to Little Milton.

In 1999, J. Geils reunited for an end-of-the-century tour. Wolf reentered the studio with White and cut Sleepless for the Artemis label in 2002. This set, with guests including Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Steve Earle, was almost universally regarded as Wolf's finest solo moment and garnered -- again from Rolling Stone -- the honor of being "one of the greatest 500 albums of all time." In 2005, the J. Geils Band reunited once more for a special charity event to benefit the Cam Neely Cancer Foundation, Denis Leary's Firefighters Association of New England, and Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's Disease Research Foundation. The band later reunited in 2009 for a short series of sold-out shows across the U.S.; Wolf claims they were more than likely their very last. He finally re-emerged from his own recording silence in 2010 with Midnight Souvenirs on Verve, co-produced with White; the pair enlisted duet help from Shelby Lynne, Neko Case, and one of Wolf's true heroes, Merle Haggard.

Wikipedia:

Peter Wolf (born Peter W. Blankfield; March 7, 1946) is an American Rhythm and Blues, Soul and Rock and Roll musician, best known as the lead vocalist for the J. Geils Band from 1967 to 1983; and for a successful musical solo career to date with writing partner Will Jennings.

Life and career

Wolf was born in the Bronx, New York. He planned a career as an artist, but he got a job in the late 1960s as a disc jockey on Boston FM radio station WBCN and began exploring his interest in blues and rhythm and blues music, giving himself the nickname "the Wolfa Goofa", sometimes expanded to "the Wolfa Goofa with the Green Teeth" (as mentioned in the intro to "Must of Got Lost" on the Blow Your Face Out album). Later as solo artist he called himself Woofa Goofa Mama Toofa. He, Paul Shapiro, Stephen Bladd, Doug Slade and Joe Clark formed a group called the Hallucinations who performed with The Velvet Underground, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, and Sun Ra. He then saw the J. Geils Blues Band in concert and quickly joined. He was the vocalist and frontman, and often acted as a sort of manager. Wolf was known for his charismatic stage antics of fast-talking quips and "pole-vaulting" with the microphone stand. He and keyboard player Seth Justman were responsible for most of the songwriting. Creative differences followed their Freeze-Frame album, causing the J. Geils Band and Peter Wolf to part ways in 1983.

Wolf became a solo artist for the next 15 years, but in 1999 the J. Geils Band reunited for several appearances, with Wolf resuming his duties as lead vocalist. They separated again, and Wolf began touring once more, as a solo act.

Wolf's first solo record, Lights Out (1984) was produced by Michael Jonzun of the Jonzun Crew and featured Adrian Belew. The eponymous single became a hit single the same year, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. He recorded many duets with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Little Milton, John Lee Hooker, Don Covay, and Wilson Pickett to name just a few.

Long Line was co-produced with two musician friends, Johnny A. and a Bob Dylan backup band member, Stu Kimball. Tim Archibald (Bass) and Brian Maes (keys and backing vocals) who are both members of "Ernie And The Automatics", played on the record and Toured in support of "Long Line." His next two solo albums, Fool's Parade and Sleepless (the latter featuring guest appearances from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), were both highly praised by Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone, receiving four-and-a-half and five stars, respectively. Sleepless (2002) was noted as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in Rolling Stone issue 937. He has performed on stage with such diverse people as Bruce Springsteen and Phil Lesh.

Wolf toured in 2008 with Kid Rock and Rev. Run on The Rock N Roll Revival Tour. He performed "Love Stinks" solo with Kid Rock's band. Then he joined Kid Rock for "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", "Musta Got Lost", "Centerfold" (from the J. Geils album Freeze Frame) and "For What It's Worth".

The J. Geils Band re-united for a series of shows in 2009, including opening night at the Boston House of Blues.

On August 14, 2010 the J. Geils Band teamed up with Aerosmith for a concert at Boston's Fenway Park. The following week on August 21, the J. Geils Band performed at the DTE Music Theatre in Clarkston, MI.

Wolf's 2010 album Midnight Souvenirs won Album of the Year at the Boston Music Awards.

On Midnight Souvenirs Wolf performed duets with Shelby Lynne, Neko Case and Merle Haggard.

Personal life

Wolf was married to actress Faye Dunaway from 1974 to 1979. He studied painting as a boy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts with Norman Rockwell.

Wolf was a roommate of well-known surrealist filmmaker David Lynch at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.